


Rampage: The College Years

by KomodoDave (BigDaveX)



Category: Rampage (Video Game)
Genre: Bullying, College, Fan Characters, Gen, Social Anxiety, Transformation, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-04-29 15:40:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14475852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigDaveX/pseuds/KomodoDave
Summary: An aspiring biochemistry student named Lizzie attends college. In-between forming a close bond with her new roomie, trying to impress on the college swimming team, and having to navigate the various cliques on the campus, she finds that her research can alter the human body in ways she never thought possible.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel story to a series of comics I've written over the years, based on the "Rampage" video game series. This story will cover the lives of two of the focal characters as they attend college and build the foundation for what will become a closer relationship in the years after they graduate.
> 
> The main aim of this story is character development, so it's going to be comparatively light on transformation and building-wrecking action - but mark my words, they will appear sooner or later!
> 
> Many thanks to [AraniaArt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AraniaArt/), not only for her always-awesome illustrations of my ideas, but for her invaluable advice and encouragement on writing this story!
> 
> Here are links to the comic sequences, which are set chronologically after this story (NOTE: NSFW content, plus spoilers for how certain things will play out in this story):
> 
>  
> 
> [Lizzie's First Time](http://arania.kamiki.net/sequence/314/rampage-lizzy/)  
> [Lizzie & Lucie](http://arania.kamiki.net/sequence/8/lizzy-and-lucie/)  
> [Ralph & Fifi](http://arania.kamiki.net/sequence/971/rampage-ralph-fifi/)

Lucie cast an eye over the room which she would be living out of for the next few years. Stark, white walls, a dirty brownish carpet with several unidentifiable, probably years-old stains, a couple of flat-pack desks that both showed signs of having been hurriedly thrown together by some underpaid schmuck, and at the far end of the room, a metal-framed bunk bed containing a couple of mattresses that, if nothing else, at least looked to be the newest things in the room.

“ _Well, at least it’s a nice blank canvas._ ” she thought to herself, before giving the holdall containing most of her clothes as powerful of a tug as she could muster, and launching it onto the lower bunk of the bed.

For the most part, the day had gone relatively smoothly so far. There had been one slight speedbump early on; while she was in line to collect her room key, some smartass had complimented her on helping her big sister to move in. She soon deflated any pretensions of manliness he might have had by pointing out that she was the perfect height to give him a swift knee to the groin. Since then she’d found her allotted parking space without any trouble, claimed herself a decently-placed cupboard in her dorm’s kitchen area, and even managed to get her piles of belongings up the stairs without any assistance.

Still, if anything had gone wrong while moving in, it would have just been a temporary issue. From the very moment she had applied for college, Lucie’s worst fear had been who she might end up with as a room-mate. Back home she’d often gotten into arguments with her two elder sisters about the most trivial of things, and she’d never even had to share her bedroom with either of them. Having to share her room with another person, and a kitchen, bathroom and lounge with god only knew how many other people… it scarcely even bore thinking about.

Lucie figured there was no sense worrying about it for the time being. She’d just warn her new room-mate in no uncertain terms not to ever touch her stuff, and deal with any other problems as they came up. As she lifted a couple of boxes onto the left-hand desk and took a stack of comic books out of one of the boxes, a voice suddenly rang out from behind her.

“Oh… hi there! I, uh, guess we’re roomies, huh?”

Here it was, the moment of truth. At least, whoever Lucie’s new roomie was, her voice wasn’t overly shrill or annoying. Actually, it was kind of soft-spoken. She could live with that. Lucie took a deep breath, placed the comics she was holding on the desk, and turned around.

“Yeah, that would seem to be the logical… conclusion…” Lucie began to say, before her voice trailed off.

She hadn’t known exactly what she was expecting from her new roomie, but whatever mental image she had in her head, the girl stood before her definitely didn’t match it. She towered over Lucie, a good 5’10” or maybe 5’11” tall, had coppery red hair that came down to her chin level, and emerald-green eyes. More than that, however, despite the girl’s attempt to swamp her figure in a baggy sweater and long skirt, Lucie could tell that her body possessed that rare combination of athleticism and womanly curves. She could hardly have looked any different to Lucie herself, who stood at barely 5’ even, and had long, wild, jet-black hair that looked to be the result of someone attempting three different styles before just giving up.

“It’s, uh, good to meet you.” the girl said, grinning nervously. “My name’s Lizzie.”

“Lucie.” came the mumbled reply, before her face broke into a giddy smile. “It’s… nice to meet you as well.”

Lizzie actually felt quite relieved. Clearly, her new roomie was as nervous about this whole thing as she was. The last thing she wanted was to be sharing her new room with some bossy alpha bitch.

“So, I, uh, take it you’re from New York? With the accent, I mean.” she asked.

“You noticed, huh?” Lucie chuckled. “Yeah, Queens to be exact. What about you, where are you from?”

“Well, I’ve moved around a lot. I was born in Seattle, but spent most of the last decade or so bouncing around the west coast. Right now, my parents live in Las Vegas.”

“The City of Sin? You didn’t feel like sticking around and becoming a showgirl?” asked Lucie.

“Oh, no, no, no! No way!” Lizzie replied, with a slight laugh. “No way could I go on a stage like that, with all those people watching me. I’m just too nervous.”

“Eh, more’s the pity. So, what are you studying?”

“Biochemistry.”

“Really? Holy crap, I’m studying practically the same thing! Biology, with a minor in electrical engineering.” Lucie said, her eyes lighting up.

“Electrical engineering?” asked Lizzie.

“Yeah, my dad owns a car dealership back in NYC. I used to go there after school, watch his mechanics working on the cars. Before I knew it, I could tear out all the wiring in the engine bay and rewire the whole thing in an afternoon.”

“Wow! If I ever actually get around to buying a car, I’ll make sure you’re the first person I come to if it breaks down.”

“Okay, but I charge by the hour. Payment in beer or spirits only, please!” Lucie replied, before asking “So, your parents gave you a lift here, I take it? Need a hand getting the rest of your stuff up here?”

“Well… thanks, but that’s not necessary. This is all I’ve got with me.” Lizzie said, indicating the suitcase and backpack she had with her. “I’ve learned to travel light over the years. My parents always moved where the money was.”

“Really? What are they, bank robbers?” asked Lucie.

“Worse. Lawyers.” Lizzie sighed.

“Oh, right. Well, I suppose they were able to give you a nice college fund, huh?” responded Lucie, with more than a hint of snark in her voice.

Lizzie momentarily glanced down at the floor, then back up at Lucie. “They put one together, but they’d only let me use it if I studied Law. I’ve never been interested in their line of work, to tell the truth, so I ended up coming here on a swimming scholarship.”

“Jesus Christ, that’s awful!” Lucie said, with audible disgust. “Who the hell do they think they are, trying to rule your life like that?”

“Oh, they’re not that bad, really.” Lizzie replied. “I’m sure that when they see how well I’m doing, and how happy I am to be here, they’ll let me have the money they saved up.”

“Well, if they don’t, just let me know.” Lucie replied, smirking. “I’ll give them a piece of my mind!”

“Oh, no, no, no, no! No, you don’t need to…” a panicked Lizzie began to say, before stopping, and sighing. “You were joking, weren’t you?” she asked.

“Yup! I’ll give you fair warning, Liz, I joke a lot more after I’ve had a few drinks.” Lucie said, before checking her watch. “Speaking of which, I think it’s time we checked out the campus bars.”

“Already? We only just got here!” Lizzie said.

“And so did everyone else. Meaning they’re all gonna be unpacking, and we can get into the bars while we’ve still got a hope of getting served. C’mon, I’ll buy us the first round!” Lucie replied.

 

Five minutes later, the two freshwomen had arrived at the campus’s sports bar. At least, they assumed it was the sports bar. It was hard to tell, with the crowds of people in there.

Within moments of setting foot inside the bar, Lizzie began to feel uneasy. She didn’t like crowded spaces to begin with – it was one of the reasons why, despite having lived in Las Vegas for the previous three years, she had never once visited a casino or a stage show – but somehow this felt so much worse. The atmosphere felt thick, and the noise coming from the hordes of drunken students seemed to surround and overwhelm her. Her heart quickly began to race, before she took a few deep breaths and managed to stave off a panic attack.

“Umm… maybe we should try somewhere else?” Lizzie asked, trying to hide just how nervous she felt.

“I’ll bet you anything all the other bars are gonna be just as bad.” replied Lucie, seemingly oblivious to Lizzie’s discomfort. “Besides, this is the bar nearest our dorms. We should find out if it’s actually any good.”

As much as she wanted to just turn around and walk out of the bar, Lizzie refused to let herself actually do so. One of the main reasons she had come to college was to break out of her shell, try new experiences, and actually try living a little. She wasn’t going to accomplish that by holing up in her room.

“Yeah, okay.” she replied, casting a glance around the bar. “Don’t think we’re gonna find a table, though.”

“No, you’re probably right. We should just find someplace we can actually hold onto our drinks--” Lucie began to say.

“Wait! Over in the corner, there!” Lizzie suddenly called out. “One of the tables just became free!” She hadn’t even really been looking out for it, but her height allowed her a good view of the room, and she had been glancing in just the right place at the right time.

“That corner? Over by the pool table?” Lucie asked, before reaching into her purse.

“Yeah. Just big enough for the two of us.” Lizzie replied.

“Great!” Lucie replied, as she slapped a $20 bill in Lizzie’s hand. “I’ll get the table, you get the drinks! I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

Before Lizzie could say anything in reply, Lucie disappeared into the crowds, using her diminutive stature to dodge through the dozens of people stood between her and the table.

Lizzie immediately froze up again, feeling isolated within the bustling crowd. She felt another panic attack coming on, as her hands started to tremble, and she could feel beads of sweat starting to form on her brow.

If there was one thing that she hated, however, it was letting other people down, if only because it felt like she did it so often. Lizzie closed her eyes, and counted to five in her head, feeling her heart rate gradually slow down as she did so. When she opened her eyes, she still felt very uneasy, but could at least stomach the thought of actually trying to get to the bar.

“Excuse me! Coming through, please could you let me past?” Lizzie called out, as she pushed her way through to the bar.

Fortunately, Lizzie’s height helped her stand out, and the crowds slowly parted to make way for her. She still felt extremely uncomfortable, being surrounded by so many people, and jerked away the moment she felt herself even brushing against anyone else, but eventually she made it to the bar.

“Yo, m’am! What can I get you?” asked a bartender, who looked only a couple of years (if that) older than Lizzie herself.

That was when it dawned on Lizzie; she had never actually ordered an alcoholic drink in her life. Sure, she had drunk wine at family parties, and been given drinks that her parents’ clients had given them as gifts, but she had absolutely no idea what she was going to order.

Lizzie took one more deep breath, and decided for once, to just take the simplest course of action and order what was right in front of her.

“I’ll take two bottles of cider, please.” she said, indicating the fridge behind the bartender.

“Cider? No problem?” the bartender said, as he took a couple of bottles out of the fridge and handed them over to Lizzie.

As Lizzie handed over the payment for the drinks, she felt weirdly proud of herself. Sure, ordering drinks was small potatoes compared to a lot of the other stuff she was hoping to do at college. But she had to start somewhere, right?

 

Across the bar, Lucie sat at the table she had managed to claim, smirking to herself. A bunch of other students had been eyeing the table, but Lucie had gotten there first, and despite the angry glares of her fellow students, they respected the unwritten laws of the bar enough not to try unseating her. Well, most of them did, anyway.

“Hey, lady. You don’t need that table all to yourself. C’mon, let us have it.” came the voice of a jock who was flanked by his girlfriend and a couple of buddies.

“Oh, I’m just waiting for my friend. Besides, first come, first serve, right?” Lucie replied, not caring one bit that she was facing four people far larger than her.

“Maybe you’re not familiar with that saying. It goes something like, there more there are… the harder they push… and the harder the person they’re pushing against falls.” the jock replied, clearly straining his brain to remember whatever saying he was trying to recall.

“That’s not a saying!” Lucie laughed. “I think what you’re looking for is ‘might makes right.’ That is, if you want to sound like a douchebag as well as a dumbass.”

“Look, I don’t know what you’re studying, but it clearly isn’t maths!” the jock’s girlfriend added, thinking it best to shut her boyfriend up before he could say anything else stupid. “There’s four of us, and one of you. How do you think this is gonna end?”

Lucie glared at the girl. Then she smiled, sat back in her chair, and put her hands behind her head. “Well, if we’re talking maths, you forgot to take all the variables into account. There’s one of me, yes. Four of you, also correct. But what about the two hundred or so people in this bar?” she asked.

“What about them?!” the jock asked, impatiently. “You think they’re gonna jump to the defense of some mouthy little runt?”

“They might. They might not. But it really doesn’t matter.” Lucie replied. “What matters is that a hell of a lot of witnesses are going to see four assholes picking on a girl half their size. Somehow, I can’t see that sitting well with a lot of them.”

“This is bullshit! You don’t think—” the jock began to shout.

“I think I’m done dealing with you morons.” Lucie said, as she nonchalantly took out her cellphone and began checking her e-mail. “You can make an issue out of this, if you like. Just so long as you’re prepared to deal with the consequences. It’d be a hell of a way to make an impression on all the freshman here, I’ll say that much.”

“C’mon. We’re wasting our time here.” muttered the jock’s girlfriend, after which the group moved off to find another table. Lucie thought she heard an obscenity or two being yelled in her direction, but she really wasn't paying attention. She was too busy chuckling at the latest Spider-Man meme that one of her high school friends from back in NYC had just sent her.

After a few moments of checking her e-mail, Lucie heard a slightly more comforting voice calling out.

“What did those guys want?” Lizzie asked, as she arrived at the table and put down the two bottles of cider.

“To make assholes of themselves. And they succeeded.” Lucie replied, putting her phone back in her pocket.

“Well… guess not everyone on campus is gonna be nice, huh?” Lizzie asked, privately worried that she was going to have to deal with even more of the kind of people who had made her high school years such a living hell.

“Probably not, no.” Lucie replied, as she noticed that Lizzie, despite her efforts to hide it, was visibly quivering. "You okay, Liz?" asked Lucie. "You seem a little bit shaky."

"I'm fine. It's nothing." Lizzie mumbled.

"C'mon, tell me, what happened?" Lucie asked, sternly. "Did someone try messing with you? If they did, tell me who it is, and I-"

"No, no! Nothing like that!" Lizzie replied, before sighing. "It's just... I really don't like large crowds like this. They make me feel... very uncomfortable."

"Really? Oh, Jesus fucking Christ!" came Lucie's reply. She already had a naturally paler complexion compared to Lizzie, but even so, the color visibly drained from her face. "And there was me dragging you here, and sending you alone through that fucking crowd to buy drinks... god, I am such a fucking moron..." she continued, placing one of her hands over her face.

"Hey, hey! It's not your fault!" Lizzie said, trying her best to sound reassuring, while reaching across the table and placing her hand on Lucie's free hand. "I should have told you, but I didn't, so it's just as much my fault. Besides... truth be told I was kinda forcing myself to come to this bar, to try and get over my fears. And you were right about one thing - it's going to be a lot worse in here after everyone finishes unpacking and comes down here."

"Well... if you're sure you're okay staying here." Lucie replied, allowing herself to smile slightly.

"Of course I am!" Lizzie replied, warmly. "Besides, where else on campus am I gonna go when I wanna watch the Seattle Mariners playing? I'm gonna have to get used to this place sooner or later, right?"

"Okay. But if you start feeling uncomfortable again, just let me know. We don't have to stay a second longer than you want to." said Lucie, before she picked up her bottle of cider and gave it a sniff. “This smells nice! Your drink of choice?” she asked.

“Well, I guess it is now.” Lizzie said, before taking a swig from her own bottle. She shuddered slightly, feeling a definite kick from the alcohol, but it definitely tasted good.

Lucie took a gulp from her own bottle, and smiled “Gotta hand it to you, Liz, this is pretty nice. I’m used to harder stuff, but I think I can learn to like this.”

“Yeah, I’ll try to remember this next time I order.” Lizzie replied, already feeling a buzz from the alcohol. “Say, I know we only just met, but we seem to make a pretty good team, Lucie.”

“Yeah, we do.” Lucie replied, with a slight smile, feeling reassured that Lizzie didn't seem to be holding a grudge over being dragged here. “And you know, we’re studying the same sort of area of science. I’m sure we could help each other out.”

“That’d be great!” Lizzie responded, enthusiastically. “We can study together, help out in each other’s projects, maybe even discuss problems over dinner…”

“Whoa, whoa, take it easy, girl!” Lucie laughed. “Next thing you know, you’ll be asking me out on a date.”

“Oh, no, no, no! No, don’t worry! That’s… that’s never going to happen!” Lizzie replied, blushing visibly.

“Yeah, ‘course not.” Lucie replied, before taking another big gulp from her bottle of cider. “I mean, being on the swimming team, you’ll probably be able to have your pick of any guy from any of the other sports teams, right?”

Lizzie grinned awkwardly. “Well… I don’t know if I’m really into jocks… but hey, I probably wouldn’t say no if one ever asked me out!” she said.

Lucie nodded, then took another big gulp from her drink. The odds on her getting a roomie who was studying in the same field had already been very small. The odds of said roomie also being gay… they were infinitesimal. Still, there was no point in getting worked up about it. Not like she was looking for a long-term commitment this early in her college years anyway.

“Well, let me know if ever you need backup.” Lucie said, with a little smile, before holding out her now half-empty bottle of cider. “Like you said, I think we can be a great team.”

Lizzie smiled widely, feeling so gratified to have already formed a connection with her roomie, and then touched her own bottle with Lucie’s.

“I’ll drink to that!” she said.


	2. Chapter 2

For most of her freshman week, Lizzie had been busily familiarizing herself with the layout of the college, finding the location of each and every classroom and lab where she would have classes, checking out the swimming pool and its opening times, and even finding out where everything was in the college library. Not to mention taking a couple of bus trips into the city, and the shopping mall just outside. True, she hadn’t really been to any of the freshers’ events, but then Lizzie had always known she wasn’t a social butterfly.

Now, it was time to get down to business. Her first actual lecture. Lizzie stood outside the door of the lecture hall, clutching her notepad and textbook, and quivering ever so slightly. She didn’t even really know what exactly she was so worried about. Maybe it was just the thought of being in such close quarters with the hundred or so other people on her course, or the chance that she might miss some important fact in the lecture and screw up right at the start of her course, or--

“Hey, are you here for the biochemistry lecture, too?” came a voice from behind Lizzie.

Lizzie nearly jumped out of her skin, then after catching her breath, turned around to see a bespectacled girl with blonde hair in pigtails stood behind her.

“Uh, yeah. I am. Guess if we’re in the wrong place, at least we’re both in the wrong place, right?” Lizzie joked.

The other girl smiled faintly. “It says ‘Biochemistry’ on that sign there. We’re both in the right place.” she said, softly.

“Ohhh! Right, yeah! You know how you’re thinking so hard that you miss the obvious? Think that’s what I must have done.” Lizzie replied, with a sheepish grin. In actuality, she knew perfectly well that she was in the right place, but missing the sign was the sort of thing she’d have done anyway.

“Well… we should probably go in, right?” asked the other girl.

“Yeah, I think so.” Lizzie replied.

 

The two entered the lecture hall, and were surprised to find only about a half-dozen or so other students in there.

“Guess we’re early, huh?” Lizzie said, as she took in the size of the room.

“Looks that way. Um, do you mind if we grab a seat halfway down? I won’t be able to see anything from the back.”

“Yeah, of course!” replied Lizzie. Apparently she had just made another new friend, which she was perfectly fine with. “My name’s Lizzie, by the way.”

“I’m Bonnie. It’s, um, nice to meet you.”

Slowly but surely, more students began filtering into the lecture hall, filling up the seats. Eventually, a tall, thin guy with wiry black hair entered the hall, gave Bonnie a little wave, and then sat down next to her and Lizzie.

“Hey, Bonnie! Why didn’t you wait for me?” he asked.

“Umm… I did?” Bonnie replied, flatly. “I waited on the forecourt for you for about ten minutes, but you never showed up.”

“Well, I, uh, kinda overslept. But you should still have waited for me!” came the slightly sheepish reply.

“Oh, jeez! I’ve not wandered into the middle of a lover’s tiff, have I?” added Lizzie, with a slightly nervous giggle.

“Lovers? No, we’re not a couple!” Bonnie replied, taken aback a bit by Lizzie’s question. “Rhett and I are from the same town, and we went to high school together. But we’re just friends.”

“Really? You’re from the same town, you were classmates at the same high school, and you came to study the same course at the same college? Sounds like the start of a romance novel, if you ask me!” laughed Lizzie.

“No, trust me, I’m well and truly in the Friend Zone. And you know what, I’m quite okay with that! I wouldn’t want to screw up the friendship we have…” Rhett began to say.

All of a sudden, the lights in the lecture hall dimmed, and the AV system kicked into life, displaying the first slide of a presentation titled “ _The Basics of Biochemistry_ ”.

“Good morning, everybody! Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” an English-accented voice announced through the speakers.

Moments later, a smartly-dressed woman walked through the lower door of the lecture hall, and stood at the podium near the front.

“My name is Professor Dillon, and I’m the course leader for biochemistry. There’s a probably a few people yet to come, the one’s who’ve gotten lost or are still too hungover, so I thought I’d give you all a little introductory speech before we get to the real meat and potatoes of the lecture, just to let the stragglers catch up.” announced the professor.

Lizzie was a little taken aback by the professor’s appearance, and she could tell that she wasn’t the only student who was. Professor Dillon looked much younger than Lizzie had been expecting – late 30s, or maybe early 40s – and was a tall, striking woman, about the same height as Lizzie, with short, dark hair, and wearing a long-sleeved blouse, waistcoat and pants.

“So, what is biochemistry, you might ask? Well, if you ARE asking that, I’d wonder why you applied for this course in the first place.” commented Professor Dillon, getting a few chuckles from the students. “A more valid question might be, what are you going to achieve by doing this course? A lot of you are probably going to be going into the pharmaceutical industry after you graduate – and no, I won’t hold this country’s health system against any of you for that – but in more practical terms, what you are going to discover is how life works, at its most basic, fundamental, chemical level. And I’ll warn you ahead of a time, a lot of it’s going to be pretty mundane…”

As the professor spoke, some students sat near the front of the hall started whispering among themselves and giggling.

“I heard that, you know!” the professor suddenly called out, quickly turning to face the students in question. “Something about the niceness of my arse, I believe?” she asked, imperiously.

The students who had been chatting immediately turned red-faced, though one of them stared defiantly at the professor.

“Holy crap, she’s got good hearing!” Lizzie whispered.

The professor continued to glare at the students in question for another couple of moments, though smirked slightly as she did so.

“Let’s get one thing clear. This isn’t high school. If you misbehave, there’s no detention, no extra homework. But if you stop paying attention, and miss out on the important facts of these lectures, then you’ll pay the price where it really hurts. In your finals, and in your lab assignments. And then you’ll have to explain why you’ve frittered mum and dad’s money down the drain. Just a friendly warning.”

“Remind me never to cross her.” Rhett whispered.

“Getting back to what I was saying, most of what we study in this course will be the most mundane principles of life. But you’re also going to discover some pretty extraordinary things. Of course, this isn’t science fiction, you’re not going to be able to inject yourself with radioactive spider blood, or expose yourself to gamma rays, and turn yourself into a superhero. But you’ll find that there’s a lot more to life, and a lot more that can be done with it, than first meets the eye.”

 

Just under an hour later, Lizzie, Bonnie and Rhett emerged from their first lecture, slowly filtering out of the hall with their classmates.

“That was really fascinating!” Lizzie said, enthusiastically. “I know it was only really an introductory lecture, but I’m already feeling so excited about this course!”

“Yeah, me too.” Bonnie replied, albeit still in a fairly muted tone.

“Professor Dillon certainly seems like a very… interesting person.” added Rhett. “I think I might check out her senior thesis tonight. I’m guessing I probably won’t understand half of it, but it’ll be interesting to see what kind of thing we’re working towards.”

“Yeah, I might do that as well. So, do either of you feel like grabbing lunch?” asked Lizzie.

“Ah, we can’t I’m afraid.” Rhett replied. “We agreed we’d go check out some of the societies. Why don’t you come with us, you might find something you’re interested in?”

Lizzie considered his offer for a moment. “Well, I’m gonna be part of the college swimming team, so I’ll automatically be in the sports society. I think that’s enough for me, to be honest.” she said.

“Fair enough. We’ll see you next lecture, I guess?” said Bonnie.

“Well, let’s swap our phone numbers, at least!” Rhett added. “Building up a big network of friends is half the fun of college, right?”

“Right, of course!” Lizzie replied. “Tell you what, I’ll send you both a friend request on Facebook too, that way we can stay in touch more easily.”

“Yes, that’d be nice, thanks… Lizzie.” Bonnie said, breaking into a proper smile for the first time since Lizzie had met her.

“Not a problem! It’s been so nice meeting you both.” replied Lizzie.

 

Once she had swapped contact details with Bonnie and Rhett, Lizzie began walking back to her dorm, quietly thinking to herself how Bonnie seemed even shyer than Lizzie herself. Still, Rhett was obviously a good friend to her. It was enough to make Lizzie wish she’d actually lived anywhere long enough to build up that kind of friendship.

Just as she approached the entrance to her dorms, Lizzie spotted a small, black car she recognised as belonging to Lucie pull into her parking space. Lucie got out of the car, and gave a little wave to Lizzie.

“Hi!” Lizzie called out. “Still not had your first lecture?”

“Not until five. Thought I’d pick a few things up first.” Lucie replied, before opening the trunk on her car.

“Here, let me help you with that!” Lizzie said, as she walked over to Lucie’s car.

“Alright, thanks! You take these bags, and I’ll carry this bad boy!” Lucie said, as she reached into the trunk and pulled out a vintage electric guitar. Lizzie didn’t know much about musical instruments, but she could tell it was well-preserved, and probably worth quite a bit.

“I didn’t know you could play the guitar!” Lizzie remarked.

“Yep! Though my parents would only let me keep an acoustic back home. College is my chance to electrify my music!” Lucie replied, as she played a few chords that Lizzie recognised as being the “Duelling Banjos” music… or possibly the opening theme to _Jackass_. She always got them mixed up.

“So, how much did that set you back?” Lizzie asked, as she took the shopping bags out of the trunk.

“Not as much as you’d think. The amp connection’s broken. Not that it matters, seeing how I don’t actually have an amp anyway. But I can probably repair the connection, then pick up a cheap amp.” Lucie commented. "And in the meantime, I can still use it for practise."

“Cool!” said Lizzie. “All I know how to play is the tambourine, but if you ever need accompaniment…”

“Hey, I’ve heard of weirder combos!” Lucie said, as the two walked towards their dorms. “So, got any plans for the rest of the day?”

“Well, I’m gonna head down to the pool, check it out and do a few practise laps, before I start training with the team later this week.” Lizzie replied, holding the door open for Lucie.

“Cool! Let me know the first time you’ve got an actual race. I’d love to come and cheer you on!” Lucie said, as she ducked under Lizzie’s arm.

“Thanks, I’d really appreciate that. I’m still feeling really nervous about being in front of so many people. Anyway, when I’ve finished practise, I’m gonna check out my professor’s senior thesis. She seems really interesting and knowledgeable, so it’ll be nice to see what work she did as a student.”

 

That night, in a lavish house in some suburbs a short drive away from the college, Professor Dillon sat on her couch, waiting for a Skype call on her laptop. She’d just about had time to shower and change into her pajamas.

Eventually, the call came through. The professor answered it, and the image of a middle-aged man wearing a thick parka and stood in the Alaskan wilds appeared.

“Harry, darling!” the professor said, a big smile on her face. “Has the weather let up today?”

“Well… windspeeds are very slightly slower. Not that it really feels any different to me. You know, you’re the one from a cold country, maybe you should have come out here?” answered Harry.

“Hey, you’re the climatologist, you were the one they decided was needed out there. But if you find anything that needs a biochemist, let me know. I’m sure admin would pay for my plane ticket.” replied the Professor.

“Well, only two days and then I’m back. I doubt I’ll find any interesting flora or fauna out here in that time, but you never know.” Harry said.

“I’ll certainly be glad to have you back. You know how it is. My other half goes away, and the next thing you know, everyone in the department thinks it’s okay to leer at me.” muttered the professor.

“Really? I thought you said you didn’t need your husband to fight your battles?” answered Harry, with a wry smile.

“I DON’T need you to fight them!” laughed the professor. “It’s just that between a whole new class having shown up, and trying to make sure my senior students aren’t making crystal meth or in danger of accidentally blowing the labs sky high, I need to pick my battles, know what I mean?” She then thought for a moment, and then added, “But if Professor Howell stares at my tits again tomorrow, I’ll give him a rocket up the arse. Just as a warning to everyone else.”

“Eh, someone like Howell just doesn’t learn. But if you do, be sure to get someone to record it, won’t you?” asked Harry.

“Of course I will.”

Harry then looked concerned at something slightly off-camera. “Damn it, this thing’s getting low on juice. Better hook it up to the power bank. If you’re available, I’ll speak to you same time tomorrow, Amanda.”

“I’ll look forward to it! See you tomorrow, Harry! Love you!”

 

Amanda got up from her couch, and walked through to her kitchen. Just as she was getting ready to fill up her Espresso machine with the ingredients necessary to make an industrial-strength coffee, she happened to catch something in the reflection on the machine’s highly-polished chrome surface. She looked down, and saw that the stitching on her pajama top had gone near her left shoulder. The resulting split in the seams was only an inch or so wide, but it was noticeable enough.

“ _Bollocks! I really liked this one, too._ ” she thought to herself, before smirking as an idea popped into her head. Her husband would be back in a couple of days – which gave her one last chance to indulge in her pet hobby. And while she was at it, she could give her pajamas a nice send-off, too!

After taking the time to draw all the curtains and blinds on the ground floor of her house, Amanda went through to a small laboratory she had set up in one of the rooms. Mostly it was there for her to do little experiments in when the college labs got busy, but a secret compartment in one of the sample fridges contained a glowing blue formula she had first created back when she was a student in England over a decade prior, and had refined into a far more potent form since moving to the U.S. and becoming a professor. And as luck would have it, she had exactly one dose left.

Amanda removed the formula from the fridge, then walked through to her living room. After taking a few moments to remove her wedding ring and other jewellery, and checking once more that none of the curtains were open and there was no chance of anyone seeing what she was about to do, she stood in the middle of the room, and held the formula above her head at arm’s reach, in an almost theatrical manner.

“Cheers!” she announced to no-one in particular.

And then she gulped down the formula, and threw the now-empty plastic container to one side.

For a few moments, nothing happened. The formula needed a little bit of time to work its way into her cells, and kickstart the process she had undergone dozens of times… maybe even hundreds. She had lost track by now.

Then Amanda felt her body quiver slightly. She smiled, in anticipation of what was about to happen. And then, her body began to grow ever so slightly larger. She herself took a few moments to register that the process had actually begun, not even really noticing it until she started to feel her pajama bottoms growing tighter around her hips.

When she looked down, Amanda could now see that her top was getting noticeably tighter as well. Before long, the buttons were starting to strain, especially in her chest area.

Then she heard a ripping noise. It began, as she predicted, in the seam that had already opened before she took the formula, as her gradually expanding body pulled the torn seam taut and caused more threads to stretch and eventually snap. Amanda smiled and took a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of the cloth tightening and ripping across her skin.

As this was happening, she felt her top becoming increasingly restrictive across her chest. Then she felt a popping noise and a sudden relief on the pressure. Looking down, she saw that the top few buttons had snapped off of her pajama top, exposing some fearsome cleavage. Amanda braced herself, knowing that this was usually the point where the process really accelerated.

Sure enough, Amanda’s growth soon began speeding up, to the point where she could visibly tell that everything around her was getting smaller, and seemingly nearer the ground. The sleeves and leggings of her pajamas tightened around her limbs, and most of the remaining buttons popped off her pajama top. Amanda’s heart began racing, as the anticipation built up, knowing that any minute now her expanding form would overwhelm the garments she was wearing, and rip them wide open…

Then, it happened. The seam on the right leg of her pajama bottoms popped open, swiftly followed by the left, and soon the leggings began to rip open down their entire length, exposing her long, toned legs.

Amanda flexed her arms, and her biceps split open the sleeves on her top. Her muscles didn’t grow any faster or bigger than the rest of her, but then, they didn’t need to.

Of course, Amanda’s panties weren’t having an easier time of things than the rest of her clothing. They tightened around her crotch, stretching to their very limit, digging into her nether regions… Amanda giggled and bit her lip, as her whole body trembled in ecstasy, before the elastic on her panties snapped, and the pleasurable sensations she was feeling subsided. Well, slightly subsided, at any rate.

As the top Amanda was wearing ripped open at the back, she began to feel the sensation of growth subsiding. It was just as well, really – she didn’t have much clothing left on her body to rip out of. Her growth spurt slowed, and finally stopped, leaving her towering above the room, far above the height of any ordinary human. There was still a lot about the process she didn’t fully understand, and seemingly an element of randomness; sometimes she would only grow taller by a foot or so, but this had been a good growth spurt; she was now well above eight feet tall, maybe even nearer to nine feet. Casually, she discarded her ruined pajama top, leaving herself naked above the waist, though decided to keep what little remained of her panties and pajama bottoms hanging around her hip; she didn’t like to feel completely exposed.

The enormous woman reclined on her couch, feeling a satisfying creaking sound emitting from it as she did so. Amanda then reached for the TV remote – making yet another a mental note to buy one that would be easier to operate at increased sizes – and began skimming the channels, looking for something nice and steamy to watch.

“ _I suppose I'd better do a blood test first thing, just make sure this stuff still isn't doing anything weird to me._ ” Amanda thought to herself, as she flipped through the channels. “ _But then again, weird is how life's always been for me. No reason to expect things are going to change, right?"  
_


	3. Chapter 3

“ _Never realized swimming was this popular_.” Lucie thought to herself, as she sat down in the college pool’s seating area. Their college was hosting the first round of this year’s championships, and a pretty sizeable crowd had already built up to watch the event.

As she waited for the event to start, Lucie opened her bag and took out one of her electrical engineering textbooks. She considered giving it a quick read, but thought better of it and stuffed it back into her bag. There’d be plenty of time to do it later, and she was already swamped with work from her two courses as it was. To say nothing of fitting in the time to attend the D&D society.

Soon, the teams from the competing colleges began making their way to their benches, and a cheer went up from the crowd as their own college team made their entrance. Lucie squinted, but could just about make out Lizzie – she was the tallest person on the team, unsurprisingly, but if not for that she’d have struggled to make Lizzie out, with her red hair hidden underneath a swimming cap.

“C’mon, Lizzie! Show them what you’re made of!” Lucie called out, while giving Lizzie a wave. Lizzie didn’t react, however, which Lucie put down to her either being nervous, or just not being able to make Lucie out in the crowd.

Despite her best efforts, Lucie couldn’t help but notice how… _good_ Lizzie looked in that swimsuit. Her long, sculpted legs were on view to the world, and despite the swimsuit doing its best to contain her natural assets, she still had a good amount of cleavage on display. Lucie felt a little bit dirty for ogling her roomie in public like that, but she couldn’t help finding her attractive. Though deep down, she did momentarily wonder to herself why it was Lizzie of all people she couldn’t keep her eyes off of, when there had to be at least three dozen or so swimmers from the various college teams sat around the pool, all in similarly revealing swimsuits…

Suddenly, Lucie’s attention was distracted when another person wearing the college’s swimsuit colors suddenly started walking up and down the college team, wagging her finger in their faces and giving a speech of some kind. Even a woman stood nearby in a polo shirt and shorts – who Lucie guessed was the team coach – seemed to be rolling her eyes. Then it struck Lucie as to who the girl was.

“ _Holy crap! It’s that girl I nearly got into a fight with back at the sports bar the day I moved in! Poor Lizzie… I don’t envy having to deal with that bitch!”_ she thought to herself.

 

The first couple of races passed with mixed results. The swimmer from the college team won the 100m backstroke event, but her counterpart on the 100m breaststroke could only manage third place, and then the swimmer on the 200m freestyle completely floundered – literally and figuratively – finishing in last place by some distance. Lucie felt nervous, hoping to whatever deities may or may not have existed that Lizzie did well.

Finally, the moment came: the 800m freestyle. Lizzie stood up, and cheered on by her team and the crowds, took her place at the starting line.

“Come on, Lizzie! We’re rooting for ya!” yelled Lucie, getting a couple of looks from the people sat nearby.

The judges signalled for quiet, as a silence fell over the pool…

Then the starting klaxon sounded, and the swimmers dived into the pool.

“Go, go, Lizzie!” Lucie shouted, as it became obvious that her roomie was already near the head of the pack.

Lucie quickly did the math in her head; the swimming pool was Olympic-length, which a quick bit of Googling on the way to the pool told her was 50m. The race was 800m, meaning that Lizzie had to do a daunting total of 16 lengths. All of a sudden, it made sense as to why Lizzie was doing this particular race; with her height and build, she probably had a lot of stamina. Either that, or she just drew the short straw.

For the first half of the race, Lizzie was more or less in a dead heat for the lead with two other swimmers. That changed on her ninth length, when one of the swimmers who had been keeping pace with her suddenly stopped at the end of her latest length, rested her arm on the end of the pool, and tapped the floor nearby a couple of times.

“She’s out!” called a student sat near Lucie. “Probably pulled a muscle.”

“ _Alright, yes! Come on, Lizzie, victory in your first race! You’re so close!_ ” Lucie thought, gleefully. She was so wrapped up watching Lizzie that she didn’t notice someone walk up to the judges and start talking with them.

By the time of her fourteenth length, Lizzie was about a foot, maybe two ahead of her nearest rival. Lucie could barely contain her excitement, and was already thinking about what drink to buy Lizzie at the sports bar afterwards. Lizzie still mostly just drunk the cider she had tried on her first day whenever they went to the bar, but Lucie thought she could probably persuade Lizzie to try something stronger. Maybe a shot of vodka, or some amaretto?

The second-placed swimmer managed to regain some ground on Lizzie during the next length, but not enough to take the lead. Lizzie began her final length, still ahead of her rival.

Lucie watched on eagerly, as did Lizzie’s team-mates. The team had done respectably enough until this point, but a win in the longest, hardest event would do a lot to boost their morale.

As her final lap progressed, Lizzie just about managed to hold onto the lead, despite the relentless efforts of her nearest rival. Lucie felt her heart in her mouth, and she was sure the rest of the audience did…

And then Lizzie reached the end of the pool, moments before her rival did.

A massive cheer went up from the crowd, with Lucie’s cheers being perhaps the loudest of all.

“That’s my roomie, right there! That’s my roomie!” she screamed.

A clearly exhausted, but incredibly happy Lizzie hauled herself out of the pool, to the cheers of her fellow students. Moments later, the judges approached her, along with the girl who had finished second, and then took them away for a talk. Little by little, the applause started to die down, until only a deathly silence hung over the pool.

“ _What’s going on? Why did everyone go quiet all of a sudden?”_ Lucie wondered to herself.

Moments later, Lizzie ran away from the judges, towards the changing rooms, not even bothering to look at her team-mates or the crowd. An audible groan emitted from the people watching the event.

“What… what’s going on? What just happened?” stuttered Lucie, as her face turned ashen.

“What just happened is, your roomie got disqualified for a false start.” came a voice from behind Lucie.

“Great. Knew I was expecting too much for our team to do any good.” another voice muttered.

Lucie looked on in utter, absolute disbelief. Only a few moments ago she had been cheering her roomie onto an incredible win, and now…

Then it struck Lucie that no-one on the team had followed Lizzie into the changing room. Without a second thought, Lucie stood up and started making her way out of the seating area.

 

As Lucie descended the stairs to the swimming pool’s lobby, she saw a figure wearing a hooded tracksuit walking quickly away from the women’s changing rooms towards the main entrance. Initially Lucie didn’t pay it much attention, and walked towards the changing room door. But then she realized how tall the tracksuited person had been – just short of six feet – and there was something familiar about the person’s gait…

“Lizzie, WAIT!” Lucie called out, as she turned around and started running after the figure, who was just leaving the building.

The hooded figure got a few feet out of the building, then stopped, folded its arms, and looked towards the ground. Moments later, Lucie caught up.

“Look, Lizzie, I… I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now. But running away isn’t the answer!” Lucie said, in-between breaths.

A few more moments passed, then the figure pulled down its hood, to reveal the red hair beneath. Lizzie turned to face Lucie, and it was obvious from her red, puffy eyes and the tears that were still present on her cheeks, that she had been crying.

Lucie winced; part of her wanted to tell Lizzie that she was making a fuss over a pretty minor mishap in the overall scheme of things and just needed to get over it, but seeing Lizzie in so much pain… Lucie actually felt for a moment that she might well up herself, before getting a grip on things. She knew what Lizzie needed was someone to be strong for her right now.

“My… my very first race… and I fucked everything up… in front of the whole college…” sobbed Lizzie.

“No, no, you didn’t!” Lucie replied, taking Lizzie’s hand and looking into her eyes. “You did so well, you took on the longest race in the event, and you did the best! It was just that one little mistake at the start, and I mean, I didn’t notice it, and I don’t think anyone else did, either. They must have had to use a camera or something to spot it.”

“Maybe. But it doesn’t matter. It’s tiny mistakes like that which cost you everything. Just the slightest error can turn a new miracle drug into a horrible poison…” Lizzie began to say, having trouble even looking Lucie in the eye.

“Well, that’s why we come to college, right? To learn these things, to make mistakes in an environment where it’s not going to hurt anyone. And you know, this was only the first round of the championships, right? If you can keep up that performance, you’ll be raking in the medals by the end of the year!” Lucie said, squeezing Lizzie’s hand a little harder.

“Oh, it’s not going to matter.” Lizzie muttered. “After today, my coach and captain are gonna be so pissed off, they’ll probably throw me off the team. And then I’ll lose my scholarship…”

“No, that’s not gonna happen!” Lucie replied firmly, as she decided that just a little bit of tough love was gonna be necessary. “These things happen, Liz, your team-mates will understand that. But if you aren’t even there to talk to them after the event, that’s what _will_ get them angry. They’ll support you, Lizzie, but you need to meet them halfway.”

“I… I don’t know if I can…” Lizzie began to say.

“Of course you can. C’mon, I’ll walk you back to the dressing room.” Lucie said, softly, as she led Lizzie back into the building.

“If you insist.” Lizzie whispered in reply.

“I do.” replied Lucie. “But don’t worry, I’ll wait out here for you. And when you get out, we’ll go to the campus store, get a few drinks, something nice for us to eat. Then tonight, we’ll watch a movie on my laptop. Just the two of us.”

As Lizzie took in Lucie’s words, she began to perk up ever so slightly. “Umm… I don’t suppose you have any X-Men movies, do you?” she asked.

“Yeah. All of them except the Wolverine origins one. Why do you ask?”

“Well… umm… truth be told, I was kinda hitting a brick wall with an assignment the other day, so… I had a leaf through one of your comics to try and clear my head. I actually really liked it.” Lizzie replied, with a slight, nervous smile.

“Did you, now?” Lucie replied, with a big grin on her face. “Well, tell ya what then, we’ll watch the first movie tonight, and I’ll be happy to give you a crash-course on all things X-Men!”

“That’d… that’d be wonderful, thanks!” Lizzie replied, as she wiped away what remained of the tears on her face. And then, out of the blue, she gave Lucie the most forceful hug she could remember experiencing. “I’m so glad you’re my roomie. I’d probably have fallen apart by now, if I hadn’t met you.”

“Umm… thanks, I’m, um… I really like being your roomie too, Liz.” Lucie replied, trying to keep a straight face as she hugged Lizzie back. This was the first time she had been so up-close and personal with Lizzie, and she couldn’t deny, it felt _incredibly_ hot. Not least because her short stature meant that her head was pretty much level with Lizzie’s chest area. If nothing else, feeling Lizzie’s soft, fulsome chest so up-close and personal confirmed that there were no implants involved. Lizzie was all-natural… and so, incredibly sexy. Lucie even felt herself starting to blush.

“I’d, uh, better get in there, huh?” Lizzie said as she released Lucie, being so pre-occupied by her own situation that she didn’t even notice the effect that the hug had just had on her roomie. “I’ll see you in a little while.”

“Looking forward to it!” Lucie laughed, nervously. “See you soon! And tell me if your team-mates give you any crap, won’t you?”

“Yeah, of course!” Lizzie said, as she walked into the changing room.

 

For the next few minutes, Lizzie sat forlorn in the otherwise-empty dressing room. She checked her mail on her cellphone, and found a few messages relating to her class, a couple of jokes that Rhett had sent her, a link that Bonnie had found for cheap supplies, and one or two other bits of junk. Nothing from her parents. As usual. That was when it struck her; Octavia, her team-mate who had bombed so badly in the 200m freestyle, had left to use the toilet immediately after her race and never come back. If nothing else, at least Lizzie had avoided cutting and running, even if she had needed that pep-talk from Lucie.

Finally, the rest of her team began to filter in. The first two didn’t even look at Lizzie, causing her to slowly feel deflated, seeming sure once again that the worst was going to happen…

“Hey, Liz, that was rotten luck what happened to you, huh?” came the voice of the third team member who walked in the door. She pulled off her swimming cap, revealing some curly brown hair beneath it. Lizzie recognised her as Natalie; a student on the music course, if she remembered correctly.

“Yeah, don’t beat yourself up about it too much. None of us knew you’d started too early, either.” said another team-mate; this one was Ruby, who was in her second year at the college, and on the marketing course.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you screwed up. Cost us the points.” came the voice of the person who Lizzie had most been dreading; Sharon, the team captain. “Doesn’t matter if you can swim well, if you’re gonna screw up like that.”

“Hey, back off her, Sharon! We’ve all done it at one point or another.” Ruby yelled.

“No-one asked you!” Sharon snapped at Ruby.

“Okay, everyone settle down!” came the reassuring voice of Jill, the team’s coach, who entered once all the other team members were in. “All things considered it wasn’t a bad day at the office for us. Mistakes were made, they happen. We don’t have time to dwell on them.”

“But at the same time, we don’t want to repeat them, right?” added Sharon.

“No, of course not.” grumbled Jill. “We move on, we learn, and we improve from the experience. Next round’s in a couple of weeks, so let’s look forward to that, alright?” she added.

 

Lizzie waited until her team-mates had changed back into their tracksuits, and began filing out of the changing room. As Lizzie went to leave, Sharon blocked her way.

“You fucked up real good. Don’t think I’m going to forget that.” she said, icily.

“Why are you picking on me?!” demanded Lizzie. “What about Octavia? She finished last in her race, and didn’t even stick around afterwards.”

“Octavia’s finished on the team, I’ll make sure of that.” Sharon said, snidely. “But you… I still think you can be useful. So, I’ll give you a second chance, on one condition.”

“Okay, what?” sighed Lizzie.

“Rumor has it you’re an ace biochemistry student. So, let’s just say that if you can come up with something to give me… an edge by the end of this semester, I’ll make sure you remain a permanent fixture on the team.” replied Sharon, with a sly smile.

“You mean, some kind of performance-enhancing drug?! But that’s illegal!” Lizzie gasped.

“Only if you use certain ingredients. I’m sure you could figure something out that technically wouldn’t violate any rules.” Sharon said.

Lizzie thought for a few moments about what Sharon was saying. What she was asking seemed so incredibly wrong… but then maybe if she could do something to give her team-mates just that bit of an edge without violating any rules, that way she could get them to actually like her again…

“Let me see what I can do.” whispered Lizzie. “Maybe if I could come up with something that used natural ingredients, nothing illegal… that could do what you're asking. But I've only just started on my course, I'm not sure if...”

“Sounds good!” Sharon said, as she smiled and gave Lizzie a little slap on the back, without even letting her finish her sentence. “You’ve got until the end of the semester. I’m sure you won’t let me down!”


	4. Chapter 4

To say the least, the last couple of weeks had been stressful for Lizzie. In and of itself, college life would have been enough, but combined with still trying to impress on the swimming team – though she had at least made up somewhat for that in the second round of the college league, winning her second attempt at the 800m freestyle and helping the relay team to second place – and trying to create the performance enhancer that Sharon was demanding, she was really starting to feel the pressure now.

Deep down, Lizzie had slowly come to realize that Sharon’s threats were probably a little overblown. So long as she continued to impress when it really mattered, Lizzie wasn’t going to get cut from the team. That being said, Sharon likely wasn’t going anywhere, either. And she could still make Lizzie’s life miserable if she wanted to.

Lizzie sighed, as she walked through the front doors of the engineering faculty. Just the thought of bumping into Sharon on the campus made her nervous. Whenever she did so, Sharon always demanded to know if Lizzie was any closer to creating her performance enhancer. But truth be told, Lizzie still didn’t really know where to begin. She had looked at various herbal combinations, but they likely would have been little better than a placebo.

For the time being, at least, Lizzie decided to just forget about it. Every Tuesday, the end of her morning classes and Lucie’s weekly electrical engineering class happened at roughly the same time, and the two would meet up and go for lunch. Right now, it was exactly what she needed to take her mind off things.

Lizzie waited outside the workshop where Lucie’s class was held, and after a couple of minutes, students began to crowd out of the workshop. Lizzie eagerly kept an eye out for her roomie, but as the crowd of students dispersed, she slowly realized that Lucie was nowhere to be found. She looked into the workshop itself, but found only the tutor, who was cleaning some oil off his hands with a rag.

“Can I help you, miss?” asked the tutor.

“Umm, yeah, uh… did Lucie Lawson leave the class early today or something? Only we were supposed to be meeting up for lunch, and…” Lizzie said, softly.

“Lucie…? Oh, she didn’t show up to the class at all. Didn’t e-mail me to explain her absence either. If see her, could you please ask her to actually bother telling me when she intends to skip my class?” replied the tutor.

“I see. I’ll, um, tell her that.” Lizzie replied.

As she walked away from the workshop, Lizzie felt crestfallen. Lucie hadn’t been ill or hung-over that morning, she couldn’t have skipped the class for that reason. Had she… had she found someone else she wanted to hang around with? Or did she just want to skip hanging around with Lizzie that badly?

“ _No, Lucie wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t… would she?_ ” Lizzie thought to herself, as she slowly walked out of the engineering building.

 

As she walked back to her dorm building, Lizzie didn’t even feel like going to one of the campus cafeterias, and decided she’d just make herself some scrambled eggs when she got back to her dorm. Her route back to the dorms took her through the campus forecourt, where a large protest was taking place. There were at least three or four dozen students holding up signs, most of them striped with rainbow colors. At first Lizzie thought the signs said something about “abortion”, but when she squinted and looked closer, she realized it was actually “adoption” that they were talking about. With some trepidation, but also feeling curious, Lizzie approached a security guard who was keeping an eye on the protest.

“Excuse me, sir? Do you know what this protest’s about?” Lizzie asked, nervously.

“Something to do with the state adoption laws. I dunno the full story. Just so long as they don’t start breaking stuff, they can make as much of a racket as they want.” the guard replied, nonchalantly.

Lizzie nodded, and started walking back towards her dorms. Before she walked very far, however, she caught sight of someone familiar-looking in the middle of the protest. She squinted and, unable to quite believe her eyes, approached the crowd of protesters.

“Rhett?!” Lizzie called out, taken aback to see her normally mild-mannered classmate in the middle of the protest.

“Oh, hi, Liz! Have you come to take part in the protest too?” asked Rhett.

“Umm… no, I… I arranged to give my mom a phone call during her lunch break, so… um, what exactly is this protest about?” Lizzie asked, feeling nervous at being so close to the crowd.

“Bonnie can probably explain it better than I can. Bonnie, look who’s here!” Rhett said, as he turned to face someone in the middle of the crowd.

Moments later, Bonnie emerged from the crowd, and smiled slightly. “Lizzie. It’s nice to see you.” she said quietly, her voice barely audible above the protesters.

“Bonnie, why don’t you explain what this protest is about?” Rhett asked.

“Of course. You see, Lizzie, for all intents and purposes, it’s impossible for same-sex couples to adopt in this state.” explained Bonnie.

“What?! That can’t be legal! Hasn’t anyone tried suing the state to get the ban lifted?” Lizzie asked, indignantly. For whatever faults her parents had, they’d at least raised her with a sense of justice.

“Oh, it’s not an outright ban, you see, Lizzie. While there’s nothing on the state’s lawbooks that outright outlaws same-sex couples from adopting, there’s a combination of seven different laws that intersect in just the right way to make it impossible for them to actually do so in practise.” Bonnie continued. “You’d have to get all, or at least most of them revoked.”

“And two of the laws are about child protection and preventing the exploitation of minors. Good luck finding a lawyer who’ll take on getting those removed from the lawbooks!” groaned Rhett.

“That’s terrible.” Lizzie sighed. “Listen, I really need to go now, but maybe if—”

While Lizzie had been talking to Rhett and Bonnie, a couple of other students had started heckling the crowd. Lizzie thought she heard them say something about “virtue signalling,” but she couldn’t quite make it out. Or rather, she was trying to tune it out.

“Listen here, smartasses,” a familiar-sounding voice with a distinct New York accent called out over a megaphone, “There are a lot of people in this crowd who someday are probably going to want to settle down and start a family. But because of these stupid laws, it's going to be so much harder for them to achieve that simple, basic dream! And the other people here, they’re here because they have a little something called empathy. Maybe try looking that word up in the dictionaries, douchebags, because I think it’s something you need to learn.”

“ _Wait… that voice… no, it couldn’t possibly be…_ ” Lizzie thought.

Lizzie made her way to the other side of the crowd of protesters, and sound found the diminutive figure who was holding the megaphone.

“Lucie?!” Lizzie gasped, having most definitely not expected to find her roomie here.

“Liz…? Oh, shit! Sorry, we were meant to go for lunch weren’t we? I completely lost track of the time!” Lucie said, apologetically.

“It’s fine, Lucie, it’s fine. I mean… I guess some things are more important, right?” Lizzie replied, indicating the crowd.

“Yeah, well, gotta stand up for what you believe in, right?” replied Lucie, with a slightly sheepish smile. “So… uh, are you… are you going to join in?” she continued, indicating the rest of the crowd.

“Oh, uh… I mean, sure, I’d love to, but I’m meant to be calling my mom in a little while, so, uh…” Lizzie stuttered.

“Right, of course. We’ll… we’ll be here all day… just in case you change your mind.” Lucie said, with a hopeful expression.

“Sure thing. If I don’t make it back here, I guess I’ll see you back at our room, huh?”

“Yeah, of course. See you later, Liz.”

 

Later that afternoon, Lizzie was laid back atop her bunk, reading through Professor Dillon’s senior thesis on her iPad. She had first checked it out the day of her first class, but only made it about three pages in before finding herself completely lost. Now, with a few classes under her belt, she was slowly starting to get to grips with what the professor had written. Most of it was still way above her level, but still, it was fascinating stuff. Especially what she had written about genetic transition and regression. Lizzie was so engrossed in what she was reading that she almost didn’t notice Lucie returning from the protest.

“Oh, hey, Lucie. Sorry I couldn’t make it back to the protest. How was the rest of the day?” Lizzie said, as she started clambering down from her bunk.

“Not bad, really. A few more idiots harassed us, but we took turns shouting them down with the megaphone.” Lucie replied, as she placed a couple of newly-purchased comics on her desk.

“Listen, Lucie, I just wanted to tell you, I think you’re really brave. I… I didn’t think…” Lizzie began to say, with a slightly nervous tone, as she sat down at her own desk.

Lucie folded her arms, and smirked a little. “Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie… I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but please don’t patronize me.”

“What?!” Lizzie replied, genuinely taken aback. “I wasn’t… I didn’t mean—”

“No, I know what you meant, Liz. And I know you said it with the best of intentions. But being attracted to other women isn’t a handicap. It’s just a preference of mine, nothing more. And I’d thank you to treat it that way.” Lucie replied, trying her level best to calmly and rationally explain things to her roomie without breaking into a full-on rant.

Lizzie stared at Lucie, utterly dumbstruck, for what felt like an eternity. Finally, she managed to get a response together.

“Lucie… I… I meant you were brave for taking part in that protest. And for the way you told off those people who were insulting you. I didn’t… realize…” Lizzie mumbled.

“Ohh… fuck _me_.” Lucie replied, as she slumped down on her bunk. She and Lizzie sat in silence for another few moments, before Lucie broke the silence. “Well, as far as coming-out speeches go, that’s probably not going to go down as one of the all-time greats, is it?”

Lizzie’s lips flapped silently for a few seconds, before she was able to get some words out. “Well, it’s, um… better that, that I know, right?”

“Sure, I guess.” Lucie said, with a slightly glum tone.

“So, um… how long have… have you known?” Lizzie asked, having absolutely no idea where to take the conversation next. “I mean, is it something you realized after you came to college, or…?”

“WAY earlier than that, Liz!” Lucie replied, perking up just a little. “Truth be told, I actually thought I was attracted to guys and gals from pretty early on. But I only ever made out with other girls at first. Didn’t actually try dating a guy until my last year at high school. We got along really well – still do, actually – went to see a movie together, talked about comics until about 2AM. But I just didn’t feel anything at all for him, physically. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’d never really felt that way about any man.”

“I see. That’s… that’s um…” Lizzie began to say, still unsure how to reply.

“Just the facts of my life, Liz. Nothing more.” Lucie replied.

“So, wait a minute… Rhett and Bonnie, they were there at the protest. Are they…?” Lizzie asked, thinking it best to divert the conversation away from Lucie herself.

“Rhett? Oh, yeah, he’s bi. At least, he says he is. I don’t think I’ve seen him with anyone of either sex, to tell the truth.” Lucie replied.

“Holy crap! I’m finding out all sorts I didn’t know today, huh?” Lizzie replied, with a nervous laugh.

“Well, I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything major about Bonnie. I’ve never been able to get much of a read on her. Truth be told, I think she just hangs on Rhett for support, takes an interest in whatever he does. Might even be attracted to him for all I know.” continued Lucie.

“I’m not all that sure about her myself.” Lizzie added. “Though after today, I’m starting to think I’m really not the best judge of person.”

“Hey, hey, don’t beat yourself up! I mean, if it were that easy to work out things about a person at first sight, the world would be a much simpler place.” Lucie said, reassuringly, before taking on a more serious tone. “Either way, now that everything’s out in the open - no pun intended - are you still happy with… you know, our set-up?”

“What do you mean, exactly?” Lizzie asked.

“You and me being roomies.” Lucie replied. “I mean, let’s face it, there are… some women who might feel uncomfortable sharing a bunk with someone who might be thinking dirty thoughts about them.” she continued, bracing herself for the worst.

“Lucie, it’s fine, honestly!” said Lizzie, with a smile. “I mean, just because you’re attracted to women, doesn’t mean you’re going to find ME attractive, right?”

Lucie smiled awkwardly, and started scratching the back of her head. “Well, uh… I… I don’t… Liz, you know there’s no good answer I can give to that question, right?”

“No, Lucie, it’s honestly fine.” Lizzie replied, still smiling, but with a slight sigh. “Just, my past experience tells me that men aren’t attracted to me, so… no reason to think you should be, either.”

Lucie sat there in silence for a few moments. Then she got up, and placed her hand on Lizzie’s shoulder.

“Liz, don’t ever talk yourself down like that. Whatever I may or may not feel about you, you ARE a good-looking woman, and… you’re a good person as well. Maybe you haven’t met someone who appreciates you for what you are, but someday you will. And I’m sure they'll be so happy to have you as their girlfriend.” Lucie said, softly.

“Thanks, Lucie. That… that really means a lot to me.” Lizzie said, placing her hand on top of Lucie’s. “And I honestly did want to go back to the protest. Those adoption laws sound really unfair. But I was just too distracted by… something I’ve got going on now.”

“Oh? Why don’t you tell me about it?” Lucie asked, as she pulled the chair from her desk across to where Lizzie was, and sat down.

“Well, you see, the captain of our swimming team’s been causing me trouble. She’s been harassing me to use my biochemistry knowledge to whip up some kind of performance enhancer that won’t get her disqualified if she’s caught using it.” Lizzie explained.

“Why don’t you just give her a normal performance-enhancing drug, then bust her for using it?” Lucie suggested, with a malicious grin.

Lizzie shook her head. “She’d make sure I went down with her. She’s kind of a bitch that way. Excuse my French.” she said.

“How does she expect you to whip up something like that, anyhow? It’s not like you’re a final year student, you’ve only just started the course!” Lucie asked.

“Tell me about it.” Lizzie replied. “I’ve got an idea for this herbal supplement, but it’d barely be any better than a placebo.”

Lucie pondered what Lizzie said for a few moments, before her face lit up. “So, why don’t you just give her that, then? If you do that, then you’ll have technically kept up your end of the bargain.”

“She’d never be satisfied with that. Assuming it even fooled her to begin with.” Lizzie replied, glumly.

“Don’t be so sure!” replied Lucie. “One of the mechanics at my dad’s business sold me what he said was weed. Took me six months to realize it was just herbal tobacco. But in those six months, I wrote some really gnarly songs!”

Lizzie pondered Lucie’s words for a moment, then smiled. “Okay, it’s a plan! I can at least get her off my back for a while, until I figure out something more permanent. I’ll head over to the labs now and start putting something together.”

“Great! Glad I could help!” Lucie replied.

Before Lizzie left, she gave Lucie a quick hug. “You’re probably sick of me saying this by now. But I’m so glad I met you!” she whispered.

“Trust me, the feeling’s definitely mutual.” Lucie replied.

As Lizzie left the room, Lucie grabbed one of her new comics from her desk, laid back on her bunk, and began leafing through the pages of the comic. Deep down, she knew sooner or later she would have had to come out to Lizzie. And despite the less-than-optimal way she had handled the situation, it honestly felt like nothing much had changed. She just hoped she could keep things the same, and not manage to screw it up.

 

“You’d better have some good news for me, Lizzie.” came the sound of Sharon’s voice, over the speaker on Lizzie’s phone.

“You could say that. I’ve managed to create something that should give you the edge you’re looking for.” Lizzie said, as she added a few droplets of fish oil to the creation she’d been working on for the last few hours.

“What sort of an edge are we talking about?” asked Sharon.

“Enough to give you a gold medal. But not enough to make the judges suspicious. It’ll work, trust me.” Lizzie continued, as she give the contents of the flask a good stir.

“Awesome!” Sharon replied. “I’m trusting you on this one, Liz. You’d better not let me down.”

“I’m trying not to.” Lizzie said, before mulling things over for a minute. “But I’ll be up-front with you, Sharon. Chances are your body’s going to generate a tolerance to this stuff after a few weeks, maybe a month at the outside. Then I’ll have to refine it, somehow, make sure it still works.”

“Well, if we’ve got a few weeks, you can keep working on it in the background, right?” Sharon asked.

“Sure.” replied Lizzie. “Look, I’ll need to make sure this stuff doesn’t have any side-effects. I’ll let it settle overnight, test it in the morning, and if all’s well, we can meet up tomorrow evening and see how well it works.”

“Looking forward to it. Gotta go now, Liz, there’s a Cosmopolitan at the bar with my name on it! See ya tomorrow!” Sharon said, before hanging up.

 

Once the concoction that Lizzie had been working on had cooled down enough, she transferred it into a plastic bottle, then started making her way out of the lab building. Through the windows, she could see it was the dead of night outside. Most of her fellow students were probably out there partying. She knew she really ought to actually go to a party one of these days, but she was just too nervous to actually do it. Still, Halloween was coming up… maybe if she wore something that could disguise her, she’d feel confident enough to actually go to a party?

As she passed one of the last labs before the exit, Lizzie paused, getting the sight of something unexpected. She then gently pushed open the door to the lab, getting a better view of the woman working inside.

“Professor Dillon?” Lizzie asked.

“Oh… good evening, Lizzie.” Amanda replied, feeling proud to have actually remembered her student’s name. “Been a while since I’ve seen one of my freshman students working this late.”

“Well, that’s because I don’t want to stay a freshman next year. I’d actually like to become a sophomore at the first time of asking.” replied Lizzie, thinking of the best way to avoid telling her professor what she was actually up to.

“Good answer!” Amanda replied, as she continued measuring up the object she was studying. “If you’d really like some extra credit, why don’t you come and help me measure this fossil?”

“Wow! Sure, I’d be happy to!” Lizzie replied, enthusiastically.

For the next few minutes, Lizzie measured the fossil in every possible dimension, while Amanda wrote down the measurements in her notebook. Lizzie was so fascinated with the object – something which looked like a primate skull, but far larger than any ape or human Lizzie could remember seeing – that it took her a while for her to realize the contradiction in what she was doing.

“Hold on… professor, this isn’t a fossil! Look at it, there’s no mineralization.” Lizzie remarked.

“Perceptive.” Amanda replied, as she put down her pen. “So, you think it’s a hoax? You think we’ve been scammed?”

“I… I don’t think so… I mean, it _looks_ like real bone, but… I’ve never seen anything like this!” Lizzie said, a she studied the object further.

“Well, no offense, Lizzie, but you’re just a student, so that’s probably to be expected. What’s really interesting is that I showed it to three different zoologists. None of them knew what it was, either.” Amanda continued.

“So… what do you think it is?” Lizzie asked, nervously. “I mean, I look at it from one angle, and it looks human. But if I look at it from another way, it looks like it’s from an… ape.”

“If this were an actual fossil, I’d say it was a missing link in our evolution. But it’s not. And this may sound crazy, Lizzie, but I have reason to believe that this is something that started out as a human… but became something else.”


	5. Chapter 5

Lizzie stared at the enormous skull before her in disbelief. She couldn’t even have begun to guess what species it belonged to, but the idea that it was formerly human? It seemed impossible to comprehend.

“You think this became something else? But… how?” Lizzie asked. “I know you talked about genetic regression and transition in your senior thesis, but still…”

“You’ve been doing your reading, I see. Always nice to know. But I’m guessing you haven’t read my doctoral thesis, where I talked about a third such process, namely genetic augmentation. That one’s about how artificially-implanted DNA elements can change a mature life-form over a period of time.” Amanda said, leaning on the table.

“Whoa! Sounds like it’d have a lot of potential in medicine!” Lizzie replied enthusiastically.

“It did. Actually, that was why I moved to the States. Got a job offer from a medical research firm, moved here, worked for them for a year. But I got disillusioned fairly quickly. Took a big pay cut to take up a professorship here, but I’ve always preferred doing… sorry, I’m boring you with my life story, aren’t I?” Amanda said, apologetically.

“No, no, it’s good to learn these things!” said Lizzie.

“Well, anyway, while I was working on my doctorate I actually identified a fourth process. Genetic transfiguration. The ability to effect a complete, large-scale transformation of an organism on a short timescale. I came across it too late to fully incorporate it in my doctoral thesis, and it was only a fringe theory at the time. But I’ve come across enough evidence, including our friend here, to conclude that it’s very much a reality." Amanda continued, before giving the skull a little knock on the head.

“So… what do you think caused it to end up like this?” Lizzie asked, pensively.

“That, I couldn’t tell you. My husband found him buried in the Alaskan wilds. Right now, all I can hope is that there’s enough intact DNA to give me some idea how he ended up in this state.” sighed Amanda, a note of frustration audible in her voice.

“Well, uh… I guess most of this stuff is way out of my league.” Lizzie said, scratching the back of her head. “But I’d, uh, really be interested to, you know… help you out. If I can. In any way…” she continued, before her voice trailed off, realizing how stupid what she had just said sounded. Professor Dillon probably had a whole load of better, more experienced students on Lizzie’s own course, to say nothing of postgrads. Why on earth would she need help from a first-year student who couldn’t even get her own life in order?

Despite this, Amanda mulled over Lizzie’s words for a few moments, and then smiled. “Yeah, okay, why not?” she said. “I always prefer to teach students who actually want to learn from me. Tell you what, come and see me after the next lecture, and we’ll work something out.”

“Really?! Awesome! Thanks so much, professor, I promise I won’t let you down!” Lizzie replied, surprised and delighted by professor’s response. She then turned to leave, but stopped after a few steps and turned to face Amanda again. “Professor… when you were at college, how did you deal with… you know, people who were trying to make your life a misery? I mean, did you ever have to deal with anything like that?” she asked.

“Oh, believe me, Lizzie, UK universities have all that cliquey bollocks in spades.” Amanda sighed, as she flashed back to her own student days. “If anything, it’s even worse, because you have a whole load of classism dumped on top as well. Anyway, if there’s someone who’s giving you a hard time, the best advice I can give you is to try playing them at their own game. Let them think you’re doing what they want you to, but if the opportunity presents itself, try to get your own back on them. That being said, don’t let them push you around, either. Stand up to them every once in a while.”

“Okay, thanks, professor! I’ll see you soon.” Lizzie replied, before leaving the lab.

“ _Well, Lucie and Professor Dillon have given me pretty much the same advice. Looks like faking out Sharon with this placebo’s going to be the way to go. At least for now._ ” she thought, as she walked across the campus back to her room.

 

The following evening, Lizzie stood by the edge of the college pool, wearing her swimming outfit and holding a stopwatch. Only a couple of other students were around, and were hanging around at the other side of the pool, having been browbeaten by a particularly mouthy peer into leaving one half of the pool free for her to practice in. Said student then reached the end of the pool and climbed up the ladder.

“How long did that take?” Sharon asked, as she exited the pool.

“Two minutes twenty-eight.” Lizzie replaced. “Not a bad time.” Actually, Lizzie knew full well that she could probably have done the same distance in about two minutes fifteen, but now wasn’t the time to start another argument with Sharon.

“Alrighty, that’s our benchmark set. Let’s try out your formula now, shall we?” Sharon asked, before taking the bottle containing the concoction that Lizzie had created.

“Just a little sip, that’s all you need.” Lizzie added.

Sharon heeded Lizzie’s words, and sipped a small amount of the liquid. Then, she handed the bottle back to Lizzie and, without so much as a word, threw herself back into the pool. Lizzie barely had time to reset and re-start the stopwatch, and a couple of minutes later, Sharon got out of the pool once again.

“How’d I do this time?” Sharon asked, enthusiastically.

“Two minutes… thirty-one.” Lizzie replied, looking visibly crestfallen and thinking that her plan, and by extension, her entire college life, had fallen apart at the first hurdle.

“WHAT?! God damn it, Liz, I knew you wouldn’t be able to pull this off! Well, if you can’t even get this right, say good-bye to your place on the team!” Sharon snarled.

“I… I don’t get it… this should have worked…” Lizzie mumbled, not sure what else to say.

“Well, it didn’t! I mean, how else do you explain why my time was slower? If your formula does what it’s supposed to, I shouldn’t need as much effort to get the same result, right?” Sharon demanded.

“Hold on, what?!” Lizzie gasped. “You… you mean you weren’t pushing yourself so hard that time?”

“Of course not! Weren’t you listening to me?” Sharon replied, the snark in her voice barely even disguised.

“Sharon, it doesn’t work like that!” Lizzie yelled in exasperation, not even realizing just how much she was raising her voice. “This stuff can make you perform better, but unless you put the extra effort in, you’re not going to notice any difference!”

Sharon was a little taken back by Lizzie’s outburst, but smiled. “Ooh, calm it down, tiger! Well, well, looks like you do have a voice after all. Okay, tell you what, just for you, I’ll give it one more shot and really try to push myself.” she replied, not even bothering to disguise the condescension in her voice.

With that, Sharon jumped in the pool and began yet another set of lengths. When she had finished, she emerged from the pool and stood with an expectant look before Lizzie.

Lizzie smiled broadly. “Two minutes… twenty-two!” she said, feeling an enormous sense of relief.

“Alright! That’s more like it! Well done, Liz!” Sharon exclaimed, before taking the bottle from Lizzie. “I’ll hang onto this, and you can get to work on an even better version!”

“Yeah… of course.” Lizzie replied, feeling her heart sink again and knowing that she was going to have to start this whole charade once more.

 

Later that night, Lizzie sat at her desk. Once again, she was looking through her professor’s own student work, this time her doctoral thesis. Fortunately, Professor Dillon seemed to have become more practically minded in-between her undergrad and doctoral years, and her thesis laid clear the practical applications of her genetic augmentation theories. One particular section caught Lizzie’s interest; it discussed ways of temporarily increasing a person’s strength by stimulating certain gene sequences.

“ _Looks like it might be exactly what I need. These chemical formulas don’t look overly complex. I should be able to use them to create something for Sharon._ ” she thought.

Just as Lizzie set her iPad down and reached for the glass of cola sat nearby, Lucie walked in. She was initially muttering something to herself, but perked up a little on seeing her roomie.

“Hey, Lucie! How did your D&D game go?” asked Lizzie.

“Pretty well… right until Jimmy used an area-of-effect fire spell at point blank range, and managed to burn half of the party to a crisp.” Lucie growled, before noticing what was being displayed on Lizzie’s iPad screen. “Doing some more heavy reading, huh?” she asked.

“Yeah. Well, uh, Professor Dillon told me there was this project available, and there might be some extra credit in it for me, so…” Lizzie began to say.

“Liz… god knows I’m not one to go around telling other people what to do. But when you’re not doing stuff with the swimming team you’re spending all your time either in here, in the library, or in class.” Lucie said, with a soft, but serious tone. “I mean… you’re at college now! You should try, you know, living a little!”

Lizzie wasn’t quite sure how to react at first. “Lucie, please, don’t worry about me!” she eventually managed to say. “I’m just fine as I am. I mean, I’ve never had the greatest social life anyway, so…”

“I get that, Liz, I really do. Up until a couple of years ago I never wanted to hang around with anyone. Kept telling myself that other people were just too stupid, that they didn’t get me. But I didn’t know what I was missing out on until I was practically dragged to some high school clubs by some of the few friends I had.” Lucie replied, clearly concerned for her roomie.

“No, no, I understand. I think that’s, um, a very valid point.” Lizzie replied, her eyes wandering away from Lucie. “But I just want to prove that I did the right thing coming here, that mom and dad—”

“Screw what your parents think!” Lucie snapped, suddenly looking a little irritated. “Don’t do what you think they’d want you to do, live your life for yourself!”

Lizzie sighed. “Right now, Lucie, all I want to do is study. I mean, I don’t want to seem rude, but…”

“Well… okay, then. But will you at least consider having a night out on Halloween? It’s not for a few weeks, so…” asked Lucie, realizing she wasn’t getting anywhere fast.

“Yeah, sure, why not?” Lizzie replied, more out of a desire to get Lucie off her back than anything else.

“Awesome!” responded Lucie, her face lighting up. “Tell you what, I know a really good costume shop back in NYC, and I’m pretty sure they’d ship out here. I’ll show you their website, and we can order some costumes together!”

“Sounds like a plan! I’ll think about what I want to wear.” Lizzie replied.

 

Over the next couple of weeks, Lizzie continued to study diligently, while assisting Professor Dillon when the opportunity presented itself, and working on her newest enhancement formula in the background. By Halloween morning, she was feeling confident enough to try putting together a sample of her new formula. Fortunately, Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, and so the science labs were fairly empty. Lizzie was in the process of adding the final few drops of component chemicals to the bubbling concoction, when an unpleasantly familiar voice rang out.

“Well, well! Making witch’s brew, huh?”

Lizzie went pale, then looked up to see Sharon stood in the lab’s doorway.

“Sharon, what are you doing here? I’d have thought you’d be sleeping in today!” groaned Lizzie.

“Oh, I always get up this early on a Sunday to do my laundry. It’s the only time I can get a machine at the laundrette. Anyway, I remembered you saying you’d try and put your formula together this weekend, so I thought I’d check in on you.” Sharon replied, with a smug smile.

“Well, the interesting part’s over. I’m just waiting for this stuff to reach the right temperature, then cool down… speaking of which…” Lizzie said, as the digital thermometer that was sitting in the beaker indicated her concoction was at the optimal temperature. Donning a pair of heat-resistant gloves, she then transferred the beaker to the lab’s venting chamber and switched it on.

“There. Just needs to cool down, then settle overnight. I’ll watch it for a bit, make sure it doesn’t do anything it isn’t supposed to, then run some tests on it tomorrow evening.” Lizzie commented.

“Before you do that, you might want to consider adding this stuff.” Sharon said, before producing a small vial from her purse. “Shark extract. Icelandic athletes swear by it, so I’m told.”

“I don’t doubt that they do.” Lizzie replied, trying her hardest not to launch into a lecture at Sharon. “But it’s too late for me to add it to the formula, and I don’t know what effects it might have.”

“Whatever you say. So, when can we try it out?” asked Sharon.

“It needs a few hours to cool down and stabilize. I’m busy tonight, so I’ll run a few tests in the morning.” Lizzie replied.

“Well, just don’t keep me waiting. That other stuff you’ve made’s really been doing an amazing job! I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in!” Sharon said, a sudden look of intensity in her eyes. “If this stuff’s even better, I can be the best goddamn swimmer this college has ever seen!”

“Uhh… yeah, we’ll, um, try it out as soon as we can.” replied Lizzie, who was taken aback by the near-crazed expression on her team-mate’s face. Was this just Sharon’s typical competitive, borderline obsessive personality at play once again? Or had she accidentally managed to give the first enhancement formula she had created some kind of addictive quality? All that Lizzie knew was that right now, she was regretting having ever agreed to any of Sharon’s demands. At least a night of partying would let her take her mind off the situation for the time being.

 

That night, Lucie swaggered into her and Lizzie’s dorm room, fully dressed in her costume. It consisted of a long trenchcoat, a black t-shirt with a skull emblem, black pants and boots, and she had her long hair tied back in a ponytail.

“Ta-da! What do you think, Lizzie?” she asked, proudly.

“Ooh, nice!” Lizzie called out from her top bunk, which she was laid back on. “Does that costume let you use bullet time as well?”

“Bullet time?!” Lucie called out in disbelief. “I’m not Neo, I’m the Punisher!”

“The Punish-! Oh, my god, I am SO stupid!” Lizzie laughed. “Guess I’m still early in my comic education, huh?”

“Eh, I don’t blame you. Still probably more people who’ve seen The Matrix than read The Punisher. Anyways, let’s see your costume!” Lucie replied.

Lizzie suddenly blushed. “Umm… I think there may have been a mistake with the size on my costume. I think they might have sent me one too small. I mean, it fits, but…”

“Well, let’s take a look at it.” suggested Lucie. “Maybe we can do something with it?”

After a few moments, Lizzie swung her legs over the edge of her bunk, and then dropped down to the floor. Lucie stared at her roomie in amazement; she was wearing a black witch’s costume, which showed off an impressive amount of cleavage, and only came down to slightly past her hips, leaving her long, lean legs on near-full display. Lucie had seen Lizzie’s figure on display in her swimsuit before, but only from a distance. Being this close to her, and in a more intimate setting… it set Lucie’s heart racing.

“You… you look really… amazing…” Lucie mumbled.

“You think so? Umm… thanks!” Lizzie replied, blushing visibly. “But I just feel so exposed. I’m worried that if I wear this, I’m just gonna look like… well, kind of a slut. And then I’m gonna have guys constantly hitting on me, maybe even trying to feel me up.”

Lucie continued staring at Lizzie in awe for a few seconds, then came to her senses. “Right, right.” she said, before thinking things over for a few seconds. “If you genuinely don’t feel comfortable wearing that, then don’t wear it. We’ll put together something else for you. But please, don’t make your decision because of how you think other people are gonna react. The only person whose opinion matters is your own, Liz. Not mine, not anyone else who happens to be out tonight, yours.”

Lizzie considered Lucie’s words for a few moments. Then she put on the pointed hat that came with the costume, and checked herself out in the full-length mirror by the door. She wasn’t used to wearing such revealing clothing away from the pool, but her outfit actually made her feel… _good_! Sexy even. She couldn’t remember ever feeling that way about herself.

After taking a deep breath, Lizzie smiled.

“It’d take too long to put together another costume, and I might just end up looking stupid. I’m gonna go with this one, Lucie. At least I look good in it” she said.

“Awesome! Okay, girl, let’s get out there and party!”

 

Lizzie left her dorm building, accompanied by Lucie, and felt the cool night air on her skin. She could feel the hairs on her exposed skin standing on end, which for a brief moment had her regretting her choice of outfit. She quickly shrugged off her doubts, resolving to make the best of the night.

“Okay, then,” she said, turning to face her roomie, “Where do you think we should go first?”

“We could just keep things simple and start off at the sports bar. Then, just see where the night takes us…” Lucie began to say.

“Ah, there you are! I’ve been waiting for you!” a voice called out.

Lizzie turned white as a sheet – or given what day it was, a ghost would probably have been a more apt comparison – as she caught sight of the last person in the entire world she had wanted to see tonight.

“What the hell are you doing here, Sharon?” she asked, in utter despair.

“We’re gonna go to the pool and try this stuff out.” Sharon replied. She was wearing her team tracksuit and brandishing a plastic bottle which contained what Lizzie recognised as her latest formula. “It’s a long night. You can spare the time.”

“Hey, back off, bitch! We’ve already made plans for tonight!” Lucie snarled.

“Be quiet, pipsqueak.” Sharon replied, not even looking at the visibly furious Lucie “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Sharon, I haven’t tested that stuff! There could be dangerous side-effects—” Lizzie protested.

“Bullshit. I tried a drop of this, and I feel totally fine. Better than fine, even.” snapped Sharon, who gave Lizzie a glare that seemed to burrow deep into her mind. “Look, we’ve got the next round of the championships on Wednesday, and I need all the practice I can get. I’m not gonna argue with you. Pool, now!”

Lizzie flapped her lips silently a couple of times, not sure what to say. In the moment, her resolve faltered.

“Lucie, I’m… I’m sorry, but I’m gonna have to…” she started to say, as she looked towards her roomie.

When Lizzie made eye contact with Lucie, however, she saw her roomie looking back at her, wide-eyed and looking utterly crushed. Close to tears even. In the short time that the two women had known each other, Lucie had been a rock for Lizzie in her times of need, and yet it was this of all things that had upset her. Clearly, Lucie had genuinely wanted to spend the night with Lizzie. And Lizzie was about to repay everything her roomie had done for her by letting her down.

“Sharon… Lucie and I had agreed to spend tonight together.” Lizzie said, slowly turning to face her team-mate. “If you want to try that formula, we can do it tomorrow. And I… I don’t care what you say, or what you threaten me with. I’m not altering my plans for your sake.” she continued, her voice wavering a little, but gradually gaining in strength.

Sharon looked shocked, then outraged. “Fine, then, if that’s how you want to be! You two ladies enjoy your date, and I’ll go and test this stuff by myself. And then you can kiss your place on the team good-bye!”

Lizzie took another deep breath. “That’s not up to you. That’s coach’s decision.” she said.

“Yeah, it is. And when she sees the lap times I post with this stuff, she’ll drop you like a soiled tampon! Hell, I can be a one-woman team with this stuff! I don’t need any of you fucking dead-weights holding me back! Later, losers!” Sharon yelled back, before storming off in the direction of the pool.

Lizzie stared at Sharon as she slowly disappeared into the night, not quite able to comprehend what had just happened.

“Holy shit, Lizzie! You were amazing!” Lucie giggled.

“I… I really just said all those things, didn’t I? Oh my god, that was… just…” Lizzie stuttered.

“Just incredible! I’m so proud of you!” said Lucie, as she gave her roomie a hug.

“Um, thanks! M-maybe I should go after her, though. I mean, she’s acting weird, and if she took some of that formula…” Lizzie said, the nervousness returning to her voice.

“You think she’s acting weird? From what you’ve told me, I’d say she was just being her usual bitch self.” Lucie replied, trying to reassure Lizzie as best she could. “Come on, leave her to it. Let’s head down to the bar. I’ll buy you a drink.”

Lizzie pondered Lucie’s words for a few moments and realized that Sharon’s behaviour really wasn’t too different from how she usually was. “Yeah… maybe you’re right.” she said, as the two started to walk in the direction of the bar. “But either way, thank you so much, Lucie. I don’t think I could have stood up to her like that, if you hadn’t been here.”

“Ooh, nice to know I’m rubbing off on you!” Lucie laughed.

 

Ten minutes later at the pool, Sharon removed her tracksuit, revealing her swimsuit. Fortunately, the pool was shut for team practice on Sunday nights, and everyone else was too busy partying. Sharon had the place to herself.

She took out the bottle containing Lizzie’s formula, and gave it a good shake. Before she drank any of it, however, she took out the bottle of shark extract and added a few drops.

“ _Little miss smarty pants thinks she knows everything. Well, I’ll show her how I can make her formula even better!”_ thought Sharon.

Before she tried the formula, Sharon surveyed the pool, and sighed. Much as she didn’t like to admit it, she was already finding the third year of her course a major struggle. But at least if she flunked, she could have the satisfaction of captaining the swimming team to a fuckton of medals, and with the formula, maybe she actually could break a few records along the way.

“ _Alright, let’s do this_.” she thought, before taking a swig of the formula. She unwittingly gulped down a little bit more than she usually did of the old formula, but thought nothing of it. There was a horrible, bitter taste to the liquid, which she recognized as being the shark extract, but it soon passed. Within a few seconds, she began to feel good. _Damn_ good.

Sharon put the bottle down next to her discarded tracksuit, and then closed her eyes and stretched her limbs out far and wide. The sensation of stretching felt so blissful that she didn’t even notice her height gradually increasing by a couple of inches, and her swimsuit tightening around her frame. Maybe at the back of her mind she noticed the back of the suit starting to dig into her butt crack, but she thought little of it.

Feeling stronger than ever, Sharon opened her eyes and smiled. Had she not been feeling so euphoric, and had the reflections on the surface of the pool been a little clearer, she might have noticed that she no longer had human teeth, but rather huge, razor-sharp teeth. Almost like those of a shark, in fact.

Suddenly, Sharon felt her body shudder. Her hands began to tremble, and when she held them up to take a look at them, she was horrified to see her skin discolouring, turning a blue-grey colour before her eyes.

“Lizzie, what the FUCK did you do to—” Sharon began to scream, before her body shuddered again, much more powerfully this time.

And then the change really began. It started in her chest and neck, both of which started to become thicker, bulkier, and more muscular. Her swimsuit struggled to contain her expanding form, stretching as far as it could, and then slowly beginning to come apart at the seams.

Meanwhile, Sharon’s features slowly began to distort. She couldn’t see exactly what was happening to her, but somehow she could tell that her mouth was slowly widening, exposing more and more of her massive, sharp teeth, and her nose was slowly being absorbed into her face, which began to take on a more angular appearance, gradually forming into a pointed snout. Her eyes slowly began to shift to a lower, wider position on her head, allowing her a wider view of the pool.

By now, Sharon’s neck had all but disappeared, lost in-between her reshaping head and her expanding torso. Her terror and confusion at the unfathomable process she was going through slowly began to gave way to an increasing feeling of strength and raw power. She had wanted to be the best swimmer in the college’s history – and while this definitely wasn’t the way she had wanted to go about it, her new form was probably pretty well-suited to the pool.

Suddenly, Sharon began to feel an immense pressure on her back; as though something were trying to push its way out. She winced, exposing even more of her new teeth, and then closed her eyes. Within seconds, a bump began to form on her back, gradually getting longer, and then pushing outwards. While Sharon couldn’t see exactly what it was, even with her widened field of view, she could guess that it was probably a back fin. Which is exactly what it was. Before long, her bump had developed into a nearly foot-long angled protrusion, the exact size and shape of a shark’s fin.

Surprisingly, her arms, legs and lower torso had mostly remained unaltered throughout this process; even so, her limbs had become noticeably more muscular. She continued to grow taller, finally ripping apart what remained of her swimming outfit, with the torn fabric falling to the ground. Her body shuddered a few more times, as it finally settled into its new form.

After taking a few moments to get her breath, Sharon stepped forward in trepidation, trying to get a look at what she had changed to. When she saw her reflection in the pool, she yelled out in shock at the sight that greeted her. Thick, leathery skin that was a grey-blue colour, teeth that looked like they could bite a steel girder in half, set inside an enormous, gaping maw of a mouth, all packed inside a huge, muscular body. Though her overall form remained vaguely humanoid, her head and torso were now very recognisably that of a shark.

Sharon stared at her reflection for a good minute, slowly coming to the realization that, while she might now have had the body – partly, at least – of an animal, her mental faculties were still there. She was the same Sharon she had always been. Just different… no. _Better_.

After snapping together her powerful new jaws a few times to get a feel for them, Sharon smiled, getting an even better view of her teeth, and then emitted a deep, guttural laugh that reverberated around the otherwise-empty pool.

“You know what? I could learn to like this!”


	6. Chapter 6

Sharon felt the warm, balmy waters of the swimming pool surging across her shark-like skin as she swam, doing lengths of the pool in times far beyond what any normal human could ever have hoped to accomplish. She didn’t even care that she had been transformed into a half-human-half-shark freak; all that she cared about was that she had finally achieved her goal of becoming the greatest swimmer the college had ever seen. If there wasn’t anything on the rule books about the special supplements that Lizzie had made for her, then there sure as hell wasn’t going to be anything specifying that the contestant had to be 100% human, she reasoned.

As she reached the halfway point of the pool, Sharon launched herself upwards into the air and let out a massive roar. Neither of which were things actual sharks could have done, of course, but the part of her that was still human probably let her do so. During her next length, she did the same thing again, but left it a little too late, and before she knew it she was sailing through the air, straight towards the lifeguard’s chair.

“SHIT!” she yelled.

Not quite sure what to do, she instinctively clamped her powerful jaws down onto one the metal legs of the chair, somehow hoping it would stop her before she crashed headlong into it. Instead, the leg crumpled like tinfoil under the incredible force exerted by her teeth. It did at least deflect her around the chair, and allowed her a marginally softer landing in the row of team benches behind it. Dazed, she looked up just in time to see the chair, now missing a leg, slowly buckle, creak and then collapse into the pool.

“ _Shit… did I really just do that?_ ” Sharon thought.

Then she happened to glance down and notice a life preserver next to her, in a pile of equipment that she had disturbed when she landed. The temptation quickly proved too great; without missing a beat, she picked up the life preserver and bit down on it, slicing it in two like it were nothing. Smiling gleefully, she then proceeded to bite a thick lane-dividing rope in two, then got up and ran over to one of the steel ladders leading into the pool, which she also severed in two with her jaws.

“ _Fuck yeah!_ ” she thought. “ _I can bite though anything! This is so fucking cool!_ ”

Then, she smiled evilly. So many people had pissed her off during her years at college. Calling her dumb, a bitch, a slut… now, she had the perfect opportunity to get revenge on them all!

 

“Here you go, Liz, one Cosmopolitan!”

“Thanks, Lucie!”

Lizzie took the drink from her roomie, and almost without thinking, chugged down most of it in one go.

“Whoa, take it easy, Liz! It’s still early, you know!” Lucie laughed.

“Sorry, what can I say?” Lizzie replied, grinning sheepishly. “I just really like cranberry juice. Drank it all the time back home.”

“I can see that. I’m just worried about, you know, those two shots of vodka that go with it.” replied Lucie, who looked a little concerned.

“Wait, TWO shots?” Lizzie gasped. “I thought it was only supposed to be one!”

“It’s Halloween! They’re doing two-for-one on all shots.” Lucie said. “You’re feeling okay? Not dizzy, or…?”

Lizzie waited a few seconds, but felt nothing. “No, I’m fine… I think.” she said.

“Well, you’re a big girl, it’ll probably take a few more glasses of that stuff to really knock you out.” said a relieved Lucie. “Still, if you feel dizzy or sick, let me know, won’t you?”

“Yeah, of course!” Lizzie replied, before taking a glance around the sports bar. Most of the tables had been cleared away to create a dance floor, and various classic Halloween hits had been playing since they arrived. “So, um… you’ll be doing some dancing tonight, I take it?” she asked.

“Probably. Are you gonna be joining me?” asked Lucie.

Lizzie pondered her answer for a few moments, then decided to just come clean with Lucie. “To tell you the truth, I… I really don’t know how to dance, Lucie.”

“That’s fine!” Lucie replied, without skipping a beat. “I’ll teach you. Don’t worry about messing up, chances are everyone here’s too drunk or high to notice if you do.”

“You think so? Well… in that case…” Lizzie said, before gulping down what remained of her Cosmopolitan, “I think I’d better have another few drinks myself, first!”

 

On any other night of the year, the sight of a seven-foot, half-human half-shark creature charging through the college campus might have been greeted with screams of horror. On this night, though, it got an entirely different reaction.

“Hey, great costume!” a reveller called out.

Sharon didn’t even bother replying. She didn’t need the approval of the drunken morons staggering through the campus, only thinking about where they could get their next drink or their next lay from. She was going to put her abilities to good use, starting with an expensive sports car sat outside one of the dorm blocks. Firstly, she tore off its driver-side mirror with her bare hands, before crushing the mirror in her hands, marvelling how the mirror shards didn’t so much as scratch her skin. Then, for good measure, she put her first through the windshield, shattering it utterly.

“Hey, what the FUCK is—” a voice started to yell out, before freezing in terror.

Sharon turned around, and emitted a toothy smile at her one-time boyfriend. “Hello, Matty!” she hissed.

“Wh-what… what the hell are you wearing, and… what did you do to my car?!” stammered Matty.

“Just a little overdue revenge for your little one-night stand. And I’m just getting started!” Sharon replied, before lunging at the car and sinking her teeth into the bodywork, tearing through it with no effort at all, before doing it again at another location. Matty shrieked in despair as the car he had sunk most of his college fund into was slowly and utterly destroyed; firstly Sharon tore away the car’s body, then chewed up the tyres like they were bits of liquorice, before cutting the chassis in half with her teeth.

As the two halves of the skeletal, destroyed car flopped down on the tarmac, Matty turned to face Sharon, trying his hardest not to run away in terror.

“What… why… why’d you do that, Sharon? I mean, you… you cheated on me as well, so why…” he said.

Sharon smiled again. “Because I can!” she replied, before running off into the night.

 

Back in the sports bar, Lizzie had finally found the courage to try dancing. She felt awkward and ungainly to say the least, but at least there were others who were dancing even worse than she was.

“See, Liz, I said you could do it!” called out Lucie, who was dancing opposite her.

“If you say so!” Lizzie giggled in reply.

Lucie tried not to stare too much at her roomie, but she had already drunk enough alcohol to erode her self-control just a little. Even when she tried to distract herself by looking at the other women on the dancefloor, many of whom who were wearing outfits that made Lizzie’s costume look positively modest by comparison, her eyes couldn’t help but be drawn back to Lizzie.

“ _What the hell’s wrong with me?”_ Lucie thought. “ _Why can’t I keep my eyes off Lizzie? I mean, she’s good-looking, sure… REALLY good looking… but she’d never be interested in me. There’s got to be at least one other woman here who would be, so why—”_

Lucie’s train of thought – and view of her roomie – got disrupted when a muscular six-foot-tall guy in a Superman outfit suddenly danced his way into the gap between her and Lizzie.

“Say, I’ve seen you before!” the guy said to Lizzie. “At the athletics union. You’re part of the… swimming team, right?”

“Uh, right!” Lizzie replied, smiling nervously. “That’s, uh… that’s a really good memory you’ve got there.” she added, with a slight giggle.

“Thanks! Yeah, I just saw you dancing here by yourself, and figured I’d--” he began to say.

“She’s not by herself!” Lucie angrily yelled, before realizing what her statement had unintentionally implied. “I’m her roomie… and uh, her wingman. Wingwoman. Wingperson. Whatever.” she added, in an attempt to salvage the situation.

“Oh, sorry!” the guy laughed, apologetically. “I didn’t see you down there. Cool Punisher costume, though.”

“Right. Thanks.” Lucie replied, snarkily, before letting her valour get the better of her. “You know what, I could use another drink. I’ll, uh, I’ll let you two catch up on sports… stuff.” she said, before heading back to the bar.

For a moment, Lizzie felt the same kind of attack of nerves she’d experienced back on her first day starting to build up again. But then, whether through the alcohol she’d drank or her having gained more confidence since then, it subsided. She then grinned at the musclebound hunk in front of her, as she continued her efforts to dance.

“So, um, what’s… what’s your name, then?”

“Vern.”

“Nice to meet you, Vern. I’m Lizzie. So, um… what, uh… what sport do you play?”

 

Halfway across the campus, Sharon was skulking through the corridors of the liberal arts faculty. Fortunately, there was no-one around; not that it would have mattered if there were, considering what night it was. And frankly, she couldn’t have cared less if someone did spot her.

Eventually she came across what she was looking for, namely a door on which a nameplate reading “Professor G. Laird” was affixed. With a single punch, she smashed the locked door right off its hinges. After taking a few moments to marvel at her newfound strength, she stepped foot inside the room, which was an office like just about any other in the faculty. A large, oak desk dominated one half of the room, while a row of book-cases dominated the other. Still, exactly what the office contained wasn’t important. All that Sharon cared about was sticking it to the asshole who’d barely even giving her a passing grade the previous year, and had already told her twice she was in danger of flunking this year. For a few brief moments, Sharon wondered what she should destroy first. Then she decided to just start with the most obvious thing.

“Think you’re so fucking clever, so fucking important because you’ve got a nice desk?” she growled, in-between biting chunks out of the desk. “Well, let’s see how well you do when you’ve got to sit behind some $50 piece of shit from Office Depot!”

As she chewed down on the desk, she noticed how oddly… nice it tasted. Kind of a barbecue-y taste. Or maybe her taste buds were just messed up from what had happened to her. Whatever the case, she chewed her way through the desk’s central support, causing it to break apart and collapse. Then, she went on a wrecking spree throughout the room, bringing down the book cases and sending their contents crashing to the ground. Then, she gathered up an armful of books and tossed them into the gaping maw that was her mouth, before chewing them up and spitting them out in disgust. They definitely didn’t taste as nice as the desk had. Either way, she had made her point.

Sharon then began swinging her arms around wildly at the shelving on the other side of the room, knocking off the various items that were sat upon it. Just before she could smash the shelf itself in two however, she caught glimpse of something on the wall, and paused. It was a piece of abstract artwork, painted on top of a mirror. And just enough of the mirror was visible for her to get another look at her mutated form, in a much clearer form than her reflection on the pool. Not that she really looked _that_ different to the earlier reflection, but it drove home an uncomfortable truth. Sure, she was bigger and stronger than ever, and had a bite that could tear through anything, but the face she’d seen in the mirror every day for the last 20 years? It was gone, replaced by this… monstrosity, this… _thing_.

Sharon stared at her reflection blankly for a few seconds. And then she lashed out with her fist, shattering both the mirror and the artwork on top of it.

“ _LIZZIE!_ ” Sharon screamed out with a roar so deafening it caused the windows in the building to momentarily vibrate. “I’m coming for you, you fucking crazy bitch!”

 

Lucie sat at the bar, drinking forlornly from a bottle of beer. She had tried making eyes at some of the other girls who were being served, but got nothing more than the occasional nod and smile in reply.

“ _What happened to college being the place to experiment?_ ” Lucie thought.

She still had just enough of her senses still functioning correctly to notice her phone bleeping above the background music. When she took it out, she found a text from Rhett.

“PARTY AT THEATER STORAGE ROOM. GOT KEGS & SOUND SYSTEM! PRETTY GIRLZ TOO! ;)” read the text.

Lucie chuckled to herself, then typed out a reply.

“Got all three of those here, but could use a change of scenery! Will see what Liz wants 2 do.”

Just as she hit the “send” button on her phone, Lucie heard what sounded like someone calling out her name. She turned around, to see Lizzie walking towards her.

“ _And this is where Lizzie tells me that she’s going back to that guy’s room. Ah well, least I can still hang out with Rhett._ ” she thought.

As Lizzie got closer, however, Lucie could see that she looked stressed. She was glancing around, as though she were being followed.

“Liz? You okay?” Lucie asked.

“Lucie, we need to leave, now.” Lizzie said, somehow sounding both nervous and forceful at the same time.

“Um, okay. What about the Last Son of Krypton, is he joining us?” asked Lucie.

“No, he’s in the toilet. Come on, we need to go, _now_!” came Lizzie’s reply, even more hurriedly and forcefully than before. Then, she grabbed Lucie’s arm, taking her roomie by such surprise that she forgot to even finish her drink.

As Lizzie led Lucie out of the bar, Lucie’s mood turned from confusion, to concern, and then to anger in short order.

“Liz… did that asshole do something to do you? Did he touch you? Because if he did _anything_ to you, I will fucking end his shit faster than you can say—”

“Whoa, whoa, Lucie! It’s nothing like that” Lizzie quickly replied. She then took in her surroundings, ensuring they had made a good distance from the sports bar, before turning to face Lucie again. “He didn’t do anything wrong. I… I just got nervous, that’s all.”

“Nervous?!” Lucie replied, incredulously. “No, I can’t believe that! C’mon, Lizzie, what was he doing? I mean, was he a creep, did he come on too strong, or…?”

“No! I mean, maybe… maybe he did come on a bit strong…” Lizzie mumbled, honestly not sure herself what the truth was, “But I just didn’t know how to talk to him, didn’t know what to do. I was panicking, but I… I couldn’t bring myself to say no to him… so, I waited until he went to the bathroom, and then I just ran.”

Lucie momentarily looked shocked, before realizing what Lizzie was saying made all too much sense, considering her lack of experience with any actual relationships, or even dating.

“If you’re sure that’s all it was, Liz, then…” she began to say.

“No, no, it was. I just feel so… so _fucking_ stupid, so useless…” Lizzie said, closing her eyes, clenching her first and trying her hardest not to cry.

“Whoa, hey, cool it, Liz! It’s okay!” Lucie replied, taking Lizzie’s hand, and still not quite able to believe having heard her roomie swear for the first time since they had known each other. “Look, if you want to go back to the room, maybe watch a movie together for the rest of the night...”

“No, you don’t have to do that. No reason why your night should be ruined by my problems. I’ll… I’ll go back, and…” Lizzie said, glumly.

“Nuh-uh!” Lucie replied, with a smirk. “We agreed that we were gonna spend the night together, remember? So, either I’m gonna come back to the room with you, or maybe we could head off to the little party Rhett’s got going at the theater storage room?”

Lizzie thought for a moment, then managed to smile back at Lucie. “Okay, I’ll… I’ll give it a shot. If both you and Rhett are there, I can probably manage it.”

“Great!” Lucie replied, as she began to lead Lizzie across the campus. “Anyway, since when do you swear?” she asked, with a laugh.

“Guess some of your habits are rubbing off on me, huh?” Lizzie replied.

 

The party continued unabated in the sports bar, with no-one having paid any real attention to Lizzie’s and Lucie’s swift exit, although one particular guy was wondering where the sexy redhead he’d been making progress on had got to. Most of the partygoers were so busy enjoying themselves that the arrival of a half-human-half-shark creature only got a mild reaction from a couple of people near the door.

“Hey, you’re one of the Street Sharks, right? Knew someone else liked that show!” said someone sat near the door.

“Shut the FUCK up, dweeb!” Sharon roared.

She then began skulking through the bar, looking for her target. Lizzie _had_ to be here, this was the only place she ever drank. Maybe she was hiding…?

“Lizzie where are you?! Show yourself, now, bitch!” yelled Sharon.

“Hey, you’re looking for Lizzie?” a male voice replied, before ‘Superman’ emerged from the crowd of revellers. “Because I am, too.” he continued.

“Yeah? Well, I’ve got dibs on her first! She’s gonna fucking pay for what she’s done to me!” Sharon snarled.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s not get carried away, shall we?” Vern replied, before taking on an exaggerated fighting stance. “As the protector of truth, justice and the American way, I cannot let you harm an innocent woman!”

Sharon stared at Vern for a few seconds. And then, without saying a word, she threw a punch at him, sending him flying across the dancefloor, whereupon he crashed into a couple dressed up as Frankenstein and his bride. _That_ got the attention of everyone, causing a sudden silence to descend on the bar, interrupted only by the music coming over the sound system, and the heavy breathing coming from Sharon.

“Hey, crazy bitch!” the burly bartender shouted out. “We don’t tolerate that kinda shit here! Get outta here, _now_!”

“Or else what?” Sharon answered, emitting a malicious smile that showed off her rows of teeth. “You’re not making the orders here.” As if to make her point, she then grabbed a hockey stick from a nearby display, bit it in half, and then used one of the severed halves to pick her teeth.

“Maybe I’m not making orders.” the bartender replied, before reaching into his pocket. “But this thing definitely is!”

The bartender then produced a revolver. And the revolver in turn produced a mass-panic among the attending revellers, many of whom quickly started making for the exits. The one who seemed least panicked by the sight of the gun was Sharon herself; she actually laughed slightly, and then began charging towards the bartender.

Then a shot rang out.

The panic turned into a full-on stampede, with the one-time partygoers surging out of the bar by any way they could, through both the main doors and the fire exits. In the middle of it all, Sharon stood silently, staring in disbelief at the bartender. It was a few moments before she became aware of the searing pain coming from her left arm. Looking down, she saw that she had taken a glancing hit. It was only a graze, but it had been enough to draw blood. Suddenly aware that she was more vulnerable than she had imagined herself to be, Sharon turned around and threw herself through one of the bar’s plate glass windows – which fortunately wasn’t enough to cause further injury – and ran off into the night. She didn’t know where she was going, she just wanted to get as far away as possible.

 

At the theater storage room, Lizzie and Lucie were sat together on a crate, each drinking beer from a plastic cup. Some classic rock songs were playing over the sound system, and about a dozen revellers were enjoying themselves, blissfully ignorant of what had just unfolded halfway across campus at the sports bar.

“Say, Liz, you feel like doing a little bit of role-playing?” Lucie asked. “Just to help you get better prepared, for next time someone tries hitting on you, or even if you see a guy you like?”

“That won’t be the same!” Lizzie laughed. “You being the person who tries hitting on me, I mean.”

“Oh, you’ve friend zoned me already? I’m so disappointed!” Lucie replied, with mock disdain. “But like I said, it’ll be some role-playing. I’ll be the Punisher himself, Frank Castle. And you can be a beautiful Halloween witch who’s taken it on herself to comfort the soul of a tortured vigilante.”

“I definitely appreciate the thought.” Lizzie replied, putting her free arm around Lucie. “But I still don’t think it’d work. To be totally honest, I don’t think I could really date someone unless it was someone I knew and trusted. I just don’t think I’d feel comfortable otherwise.”

“That’s fine, I understand.” Lucie replied, before gulping down some more beer, and then indicating across the room. “So… Rhett, then? I mean, you know him, you’re on the same course…”

“Not Rhett!” Lizzie quickly replied. “That’d just be… weird! It wouldn’t feel right.”

The more cynical part of Lucie’s mind wondered whether or not Lizzie was deliberately creating impossibly specific requirements for a potential partner, in order to try and dodge her fear of actually getting into a relationship. Lucie had certainly known – and bedded – a lot of girls like that back in NYC. But more likely, Lizzie just hadn’t found herself yet. Sooner or later, she would. Even if Lucie had to give her a gentle nudge every now and again.

“Hey, look what I just found!” Rhett suddenly called out. He then appeared from behind some crates, holding an electric guitar. It looked a lot more beaten-up than Lucie’s but still in playable condition. “Anyone feel like playing a few chords?” asked Rhett, as he hooked it up to the sound system.

“Me!” Lucie replied, before gulping down the rest of her beer. She then ran over to where Rhett was, and grabbed the guitar from him. “I’m too drunk to remember any songs right now, so I’m just gonna freestyle it, okay?”

“Rock on, girl!” Lizzie called out.

As Lucie began strumming out a chaotic, yet still tuneful stream of sounds, Rhett wandered over to where Lizzie was.

“She’s really something, isn’t she?” Rhett asked, pointing towards Lucie.

“Definitely. I’m glad she’s my roomie.” Lizzie replied, taking another sip of her beer. “So, um, Rhett, sorry to mix business and pleasure if you know what I mean, but how are you getting on with that paper we’ve got due in a couple of weeks?”

“Eh, well enough, I guess. I think I know what I’m gonna write, but I need some good research.” Rhett replied, filling up his cup from a nearby keg.

“Well… why don’t we meet up one afternoon, when we’re done with class? You know, pool our resources, see what we can find in the library?” Lizzie suggested.

Rhett momentarily looked surprised by the suggestion. Deep down, he wasn’t sure what to make of Lizzie’s request. Then he decided not to over-think it. He could use the help, after all.

“Yeah, sure, that’d be great, thanks! Talk to me after tomorrow’s lecture, and we’ll fix a time.” he replied, before noticing some more people arriving. “Hey, there’s some folks from the sci-fi club just shown up! I’ll go say hello to them. Talk to you later, Liz!”

Rhett then started walking across the room, leaving Lizzie by herself again. She briefly contemplated going up to Lucie, but decided against it after seeing how much fun she was having freestyling on the guitar. Instead, Lizzie refilled her cup from a nearby keg, noting that it had different markings on it from the one she and Lucie had originally filled up from when they arrived.

“ _How many types of beer did they bring here?_ ” Lizzie thought, as she took a mouthful from her refilled cup.

 

For as much as her stamina seemed to be improved in her newly-monstrous form, Sharon was finally starting to feel out of breath. Reluctantly, she stopped running, and took the time to gather her strength again. Once she had done so, she looked around and gained her bearings; she had left the campus completely and was now in a forest. She’d at least be hard to find, but it obviously wasn’t the natural habitat for a shark. She needed to find some water. In the distance however, she could hear… no, _sense_ the presence of water. Maybe a pond, or someone’s swimming pool? Whatever it was, she needed to feel the sensation of water on her skin again, not least to take the edge off her injury.

After skulking through the trees for a few minutes, Sharon finally found what she was looking for – and it was far larger than she had expected. It was the lake that sat at the eastern end of the campus, a frequent hangout for partygoers, skinny-dippers, and even the occasional member of the swimming team when the pool was busy. Sharon herself had never actually been in the lake – it was too dirty for her liking – but considering her situation, the drawbacks seemed like less of an issue. She made a bee-line for the lake, and threw herself in, feeling a sense of relief as the cool, crisp water soothed her aching body. As she swam deeper into the later, she could see one or two groups partying further up the shore, but decided not to tempt fate any further. She reasoned it was better to leave them oblivious.

Before long, Sharon had found her swimming rhythm again, and was gliding across the lake like a missile, taking the opportunity to seize and devour any fish she happened across. Now that she thought about it, she knew that the lake connected to the river that flowed through the city, which in turn ran out to sea. Despite everything that had happened to her, she now had a golden opportunity to escape her life, and be free of expectations, stupid bitches, and everything else about the world she didn’t want to put up with. She could tour the country – hell, the _world_ – in her new body, and no-one would ever be the wiser as to what had happened to her.

Still, she knew that she couldn’t afford to start her little tour when she was this tired. Sooner or later, she would have to go back to the shore to get a good night’s sleep, and she couldn’t risk doing that while there were still people partying there. She figured she’d do a few more laps of the lake, then find somewhere to sleep.

 

“Okay, Liz, here we are. We’re back home!”

“If you say so, Luzcie… no, that’s not right, is it… I mean, Loosely… actually I don’t know what I mean.”

“You are so fucking drunk!” Lucie laughed, as she assisted her roomie back into their room. “How did you end up like that? I mean, for most of the night you’ve been more sober than me!”

“You started playing that… thing, that guitar, and I… I didn’t know how to talk to anyone, so I just started drinking to pass the time.” Lizzie mumbled, steadying herself on her desk. “They had some _really_ nice beers, though. I think I tried them all twice. Or thrice. Or… what comes after thrice? Fourthce? That doesn’t sound right…”

“Not a clue!” replied Lucie, helping Lizzie towards the bed. “Come on, I think you’d better sleep it off.”

“Good… idea…” whispered Lizzie, before she collapsed onto the bunk. Lucie’s bunk.

“Hey, Liz, wrong bunk! Yours is…” Lucie began to say, before realizing that trying to help Lizzie onto the top bunk in her current state would be futile. Instead, she rolled Lizzie onto her side, facing towards the door, and then removed her heels. Lucie then removed her own trenchcoat and boots, before turning back to see that Lizzie was already fast asleep.

“I know you probably can’t hear me,” Lucie whispered, “But I really enjoyed tonight. Thank you, Lizzie”

She then gave Lizzie a little kiss on the cheek, before climbing the ladder to Lizzie’s bunk, and laying back.

“ _Say, Lizzie’s sheets smell really nice. Maybe I should ask what detergent she uses… or would that be weird...?”_ Lucie thought, as she drifted off to sleep.

 

Once she was sure all the people partying on the shore had left, Sharon emerged from the lake.

“ _Not a moment too soon. I nearly fell asleep twice while I was swimming!_ ” she thought.

She then went to go to sleep on her back, but quickly realised that her new back fin made that impossible, and instead settled on her side.

“ _Tomorrow’s gonna be the first day of the rest of my life. I can say goodbye to all this shit, finally do whatever the hell I want._ ”

As Sharon drifted off to sleep, her form slowly began to shrink. Her teeth fell out one-by-one and then crumbled into powder when they hit the floor, with new human teeth growing in to replace them. Then, her fins receded into her flesh, and her body began reshaping itself back to her original form. Even the glancing wound she had sustained slowly healed itself, before her skin started reverting to its original shade, and her hair began regrowing. Within a few minutes, the once-again-human Sharon was sleeping obliviously beneath the stars, still dreaming of her plans for her new life…


	7. Chapter 7

The piercing sound of Lizzie’s alarm clock quickly brought her back into the waking world with a start, so much so that she didn’t even realise she had actually been sleeping in Lucie’s bunk rather than her own. She got up, turned off the alarm, then sighed. Then she noticed that her senses felt… fuzzy, for lack of a better word. For the most part she still felt quite alright, but her mind didn’t feel quite so sharp as usual, and her mouth felt parched like a desert. Was this her first hangover? If so, it wasn’t quite as bad as she was expecting. She then turned back towards the bed, and this time realized that Lucie was in fact sleeping where Lizzie would normally have slept.

“ _What did we do last night?_ ” Lizzie thought to herself.

Suddenly, Lucie groaned. “Why didn’t you turn that thing off?” she said, still facing the wall. “You know neither of us have any classes this morning.”

“Um, sorry.” Lizzie said, apologetically. “Guess I was too… too _drunk_ to think about it. God, it feels weird saying that. I mean, I’ve never, ever been that drunk before… say, Lucie, are you hungover? Should I be shutting up right about now?”

“I’ve been worse. I’ll be fine.” Lucie said, quietly. “Just give me five minutes to get my bearings.”

“Alright, but I’m gonna get changed. No peeking!” replied Lizzie.

 

Lizzie had just gotten finished changing into a t-shirt and sweatpants when her phone went off. She quickly grabbed it and answered it, trying not to let the ringtone disturb Lucie.

“Hello?” Lizzie whispered.

“Hi, it’s Rhett.” came the voice from the phone. “Did you two get back to your room safely last night?”

“Oh, hi, Rhett. Yeah, we just about got back in one piece. Thanks for letting us come to your party, I really enjoyed it.” Lizzie replied. “Look, if you want to set a time for us to meet up and—"

“That’s not why I was calling you.” Rhett quickly replied. “I was just wondering if you’d heard anything about what went down at the sports bar last night?”

“The sports bar?” Lizzie asked, in mild confusion. “No, nothing out of the ordinary happened before Lucie and I left there. Why, what did you hear?”

“That some crazy woman in a shark costume started trashing the place, one of the bartenders opened fire on her with a gun, and then all hell broke loose. I don’t think anyone was hurt, but still…”

“Holy shit!” Lizzie replied, the obscenity startling Lucie, who woke up and turned onto the side facing Lizzie. “Opened fire… on… but that’s… he could have killed…!”

“I know, tell me about it. You’d think the people working on the campus would be trying to protect us, not waving guns around like an NES Zapper! Look, I’m gonna go get breakfast, but some people I know are already thinking of starting a petition to ban campus staff from carrying guns. If you want to sign it…”

“I will. And I should think Lucie will as well.” Lizzie replied, her voice still hushed.

“Great! Okay, I’ll see you in class this afternoon. Take care, and say hi to Lucie for me!” Rhett replied, before hanging up.

Lizzie slumped down in the chair by her desk, and sighed.

“What’s happened? Someone try to rob the sports bar or something?” Lucie asked.

“No, I… I don’t think so. There was someone causing trouble in the bar, so… a bartender opened fire.” whispered Lizzie in reply.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Lucie exclaimed. “Please tell me someone got arrested!”

“I don’t know. Rhett didn’t say.” Lizzie responded, before sighing again. “You think a college campus is gonna be a safe place, and then something like this happens.”

Lucie clambered down from Lizzie’s bunk, then walked over and put her arm across Lizzie’s shoulders.

“Look, don’t worry about it.” Lucie replied. “The press’ll be all over this story like a rash, and it’ll force them to step up gun control on the campus.”

“I’d really like to believe that, Lucie.” replied Lizzie. “But my parents have been involved in too many cases involving gun control for me to think this is going to lead to anything other than a whole lot of arguing, and nothing getting accomplished in the end.”

Lucie groaned. Much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew Lizzie was probably right. Before she could say anything, however, there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get that.” Lucie said, before walking over to the door and answering it. There was a bespectacled, middle-aged woman stood behind the door, holding a bit of paper.

“Oh, good morning. Are you Elizabeth Medway?” asked the woman.

“Uh, no, I’m her roomie. Lizzie’s over there.” Lucie replied.

“What’s this about?” Lizzie asked, as she stood up and walked over towards the door.

“I’ve, um, been asked to bring you to the dean’s office, Ms. Medway. There’s something he’d like to ask you about.” the woman replied. “Relating to events that took place last night, I believe.”

“Ask me about? Wh-what exactly do… do you mean?” Lizzie asked, suddenly turning pale. “I wasn’t at the sports bar last night… I mean, I wasn’t there when those shots were fired, I don’t know anything about—"

“No, no, it’s not about that. Not directly, anyhow. I’ve just been asked to bring you to the dean’s office. Shouldn’t take a jiffy.” continued the woman.

“In that case, I’d like to come with her.” Lucie added, linking arms with Lizzie. “I was with her for the whole night last night, I can corroborate what she has to say.”

“If you’d like. C’mon, this way, ladies.”

 

As the woman led Lizzie and Lucie through the campus, the route took them past a wooden bench that looked like it had been snapped... no,  _chewed_ in two.

“What happened to _that_?” Lucie asked.

“Oh, I should think it’s just some good-for-nothing Halloween vandal. Wait and see what the dean has to say about it, though.” the woman replied.

Continuing their walk towards the admin building, the three walked past the sports bar. Two cop cars were parked outside it, and a police cordon had been set up at the entrance.

“Jesus… shit really went down last night, didn’t it?” Lucie whispered to Lizzie.

“Lucie, I'm... now I'm actually pretty worried.” Lizzie replied.

 

A little while later, Lizzie and Lucie were showed into the dean’s office. Sat behind the desk was a balding man who looked to be in his late 40s, and in one of the chairs in front of the desk was a depressingly familiar-looking figure wearing a swimming team tracksuit. Nearby, Jill, the team’s coach looked out of the window, her arms folded.

“Ah, hello. Which one of you is Miss Medway?” asked the dean.

“Me.” Lizzie said meekly, as she raised her hand.

“And I’m her roomie. I’m here for, you know, moral support.” Lucie added.

“Nice to meet you both. I’m Dean Miller. Please, won’t you take a seat?”

As the two sat down, Lizzie looked uncomfortably at the woman who was already sat there.

“Morning, Sharon.” Lizzie whispered. Sharon didn’t even look at her.

“Miss Medway… can I call you Lizzie?” asked the dean.

“Sure.”

“Lizzie… Sharon here has made some allegations against you that I’m hoping we can clear up. She’s claiming that you produced and gave her some kind of hallucinogenic compound—”

“No, she didn’t! She gave me something that turned me into a half-woman-half-shark!” Sharon suddenly yelled out, indigantly.

The dean shrugged and smiled at Lizzie before continuing, “And that under the influence of this compound, she went on a little bit of a rampage through the campus, causing quite considerable damage to the pool, the sports bar, Professor Laird’s office, among other areas. I just wondered what you had to say in response to that?”

“That’s… impossible, I… I didn’t…” Lizzie began to say.

“It’s okay, Lizzie, it’s okay. No-one’s accusing you of anything. But, the campus guards did find a bottle containing an unidentified substance in Sharon’s sports bag, and she claims you produced the contents of it. Right now it’s being analysed, so if there’s anything you’d like to tell us about it…?” asked the dean.

Lizzie mumbled incoherently for a few moments, not sure how to respond.

“Look, you can’t take Sharon’s word, she’s—” Lucie began to say.

“Ah, let me just stop you there, miss…?”

“Lucie. Lucie Lawson.”

“Lucie. Like you said, you’re here for moral support. If you’d like to back up what Lizzie’s telling us, that’s absolutely fine, but I’d appreciate it if you let Lizzie speak. Lizzie…?” said the dean.

Lizzie took a deep breath. Much as she hated to do it, much like it felt like she was betraying the entire reason she was here, she was going to have to think like her parents to get out of this situation. She was going to have to think like a lawyer.

“What proof has Sharon given you that I made the stuff you found in her bag?” Lizzie asked. “I mean, when Lucie and I left our dorm last night, she confronted us, and she already had a bottle with her. I didn’t give it to her.”

The dean turned to face Sharon. “She does have a point, you know, Sharon. We checked over the security footage from last night, it does quite clearly show you already had the bottle we found in your bag before you met with Lizzie.”

“ _They have security cameras outside our dorms?_ ” Lucie thought. “ _Good thing I found that out before I did anything stupid!_ ”

“Then check the security cameras in the labs! She was making the stuff she gave me yesterday morning!” Sharon angrily retorted.

“Not possible, I’m afraid. We only had the budget for exterior security cameras.” the dean replied, leaning back in his chair.

“This is a joke!” shouted Sharon. “Lizzie gave me that stuff so that she could turn me into a monster, into a freak, and—”

“Sharon, for once, would you tell the truth? Or at least try to make up lies that don’t sound so ridiculous?” Jill asked, as she turned away from the window. “After Dean Miller called me this morning, I phoned around some of the other girls on the team, and several of them told me they’ve heard you threatening Lizzie on more than one occasion. If you’re trying to get her into trouble, just admit it and save us this farce.”

“I… I… fine.” Sharon grumbled. “Just wait until they’ve finished analysing the contents of that bottle. Then you’ll see that I’m telling the truth.”

“I’m sure we will.” replied the dean.

 

A few minutes later, none other than Amanda walked through the door of the dean’s office, holding onto the bottle that Sharon had been found with. Lizzie momentarily felt her heart sink. She had used her professor’s work as a starting point, but had she varied the chemical processes up enough to throw her off the scent? Or was she about to be exposed?

“Professor Dillon, thanks for giving up your morning to help us with this.” said the dean.

“It’s no problem.” Amanda replied. “I don’t have any lectures until this afternoon, and besides, it was a nice opportunity to use that new analysis equipment our donors so kindly presented us with over the summer.”

“Glad to hear it!” the dean replied. “So, let’s hear it, shall we? What’s in that bottle?”

There was a pause, which seemed to last an eternity. Lizzie felt her heart pounding, and Lucie squeezing on her hand…

“This bottle contains what appears to be a sports drink, with a few vitamin pills and some herbal supplements ground up and mixed in.” Amanda said in a matter-of-fact manner.

“ _WHAT?!_ ” roared Sharon. “No, no way! You’re lying, you fucking bitch! You’re trying to throw me under the bus to protect your prize student, aren’t you, you fucking buck-toothed Limey piece of shit—"

“Sharon, _please_!” the dean said, butting in. “Please, don’t use that kind of language in this office. Especially considering the situation you’re in. Professor Dillon is a respected academic, she’s not given to lying.”

“ _But… but she IS lying!_ ” thought Lizzie, who was sat there in utter disbelief. “ _There’s no way she could think what I made for Sharon was just an energy drink! Unless… was Sharon drinking that placebo I made for her before? If she was, what happened to the formula I made for her?_ ”

“Professor,” continued the dean, “Could that drink produce hallucinogenic effects?”

“No.” Amanda replied. “You’d have to drink about a dozen of these to produce anything even remotely resembling that kind of effect, and even then, the amount of caffeine involved would probably cause a cardiac arrest first.” she continued, as she placed the bottle down on the dean’s desk.

“Well… it looks like you’re in the clear, Lizzie. Even if there was any actual proof you had produced what’s in that bottle, it’s probably not a violation of college regulations, and certainly not any laws.” the dean said.

Lizzie didn’t say anything; she just wiped her brow and sighed in relief. Lucie put her arm around her roomie’s waist.

“N-now, wait a minute, this… this isn’t…” Sharon stuttered, realizing the full depths of the trouble she was now in.

“As for you, Sharon, you do realize that you’ll be facing some very serious consequences for the damage you caused last night?” the dean asked, his gaze fixing firmly on Sharon.

“But… the professor’s lying, Lizzie’s lying, everyone’s lying…!” Sharon cried out, suddenly seeming very afraid of the situation she’d found herself in.

“Everyone’s lying except for you. Again.” sighed Jill.

 

Suddenly, the door to the office flew open, and a moustached man with greying hair and a flat-top haircut entered. He was wearing an expensive-looking suit, and carrying a leather briefcase that somehow looked even more expensive.

“Which one of you is Sharon Bruce?” asked the man.

“Huh? Oh, that’s… that’s me.” Sharon replied.

The man then took out a business card and handed it to the dean. “Donald Benjamin, attorney at law. I understand some accusations have been made against Ms. Bruce?”

“Yeah, they’re accusing me of—” Sharon began to say.

“Be quiet, please, Ms. Bruce. Don’t say another word unless I ask you to.” Benjamin told Sharon, before turning to the dean. “Dean… Miller, isn’t it? I’m told that my client is accused of criminal damage on a quite considerable scale. What proof do you have that she was responsible?”

“What do you mean, what proof do I have?!” the dean asked, incredulously. “She’s already admitted to causing the damage!”

“Has she, now? Tell me, Ms. Bruce, how did you destroy that car? Or that lifeguard’s chair at the pool?” asked Benjamin.

“Well, I, uh… bit through them. With my shark teeth.” Sharon replied, in a tone that suggested she herself was now starting to doubt her confession.

“You ‘bit through them?’ Dean Miller, what this young lady’s claiming to have done is clearly impossible. Certainly, no court would ever take it seriously if you were to, say, attempt to sue her for criminal damage.” Benjamin continued.

“Well… obviously she didn’t use her own teeth.” the dean replied, suddenly getting a sinking feeling. “But the owner of the car that got destroyed has told us that she was wearing a shark costume. It may have had some sort of pneumatic jaws, or…”

“Pneumatic jaws?” laughed Benjamin. “Can you hear what you’re saying? Dean Miller, unless you can produce this costume and proof that my client wore it, I’m going to have to ask that you drop any and all further action against her. It would be a shame if her academic career were to be curtailed by these clearly absurd allegations, and I’m sure you would want to avoid any path that could prove financially injurious to your institution. Besides, I find it quite odd that you’re putting so much effort into harassing an innocent student, and so little into the gunfire incident that actually did occur on this campus last night.”

The dean looked around at the other people in the room. Sharon was smiling smugly. Lizzie looked totally sickened. Lucie was glaring at Benjamin with thinly-disguised contempt. Jill was shaking her head. Amanda was just stood there impassively, with her arms crossed. Much as he hated to admit it, no trace of any such costume had been found by the guards who had been searching the campus since the early hours. And the more he thought of it, the more implausible Sharon’s confession actually seemed to be. Had he just been looking for a scapegoat for the massive repair bills he was now facing? Whatever the case, he soon realized there was only one course of action open to him.

“Alright. Sharon, pending this costume being found, you’re…. you’re free to go.” the dean mumbled.

“Thank you!” Sharon replied, smiling smugly, as she stood up. “Coach, Lizzie, I guess I’ll see you both at practice tomorrow—”

“Wait, hold on!” Lucie suddenly piped up. “That’s not the end of it. Just before Mr. Lawyer here came in, you called Professor Dillon a liar, and said a bunch of racist insults to her.”

“What?! No I didn’t!” Sharon replied, her aura of invincibility suddenly evaporating.

“You did.” Lizzie said. “And we all heard you.”

On seeing everyone else in the room nodding, Benjamin thought for a moment.

“In that case… I think a formal reprimand would be a quite appropriate course of action.” he said.

“W-wait a minute! You’re supposed to get me acquitted of doing anything—” Sharon angrily started to say.

“Firstly, the professor could conceivably sue you for slander and hate speech. It’d be hard of me to get you acquitted when there are five witnesses involved, so a reprimand would still be a good deal. Secondly, I have two girls of my own. One thing I’ve always tried to teach them is that words have consequences. And now, I’m teaching you that lesson.” Benjamin said, matter-of-factly.

“You patronizing son-of-a-bitch!” Sharon yelled.

“That’s enough of that.” the dean replied, standing up. “Miss Bruce, a formal reprimand will be entered into your academic record. Okay, everyone, I think that will be all. I just need to have a quick chat with the coach here about how we’re going to move forward with the damage to the pool. Thanks for your time.”

Sharon got up and angrily glared at Lucie. “You’d better hope I don’t see you anytime soon, bitch.” she hissed.

“Please, Ms. Bruce, don’t say another word.” Benjamin said, as he ushered Sharon out of the office. She in turn uttered a few barely-audible obscenities as the two left. Shortly afterwards, Amanda left the office, followed by Lizzie and Lucie, leaving only the dean and Jill.

“What a fucking mess!” groaned the dean, as he slumped back in his chair and ran his hands through what little hair he still had. “Please tell me you’re gonna cut Sharon from the team.”

Jill pondered the dean’s question for a few moments. “I don’t think I should cut her just yet. Could cause more trouble than it’s worth. But given you just reprimanded her, I’ve got more than enough reason to remove her as team captain.”

“Fine. At least that’ll be something.” the dean muttered.

 

Outside the office, Lizzie and Lucie watched in barely-hidden disgust, as Sharon and her lawyer walked towards the exit.

“How the fuck did she get away with that?” Lucie asked.

“Get away with what, exactly? We still don’t know exactly what happened last night.” Lizzie commented, still not quite sure how her own role in this had gone unnoticed, before turning to Amanda. “At least she got punished for those things she said to you.”

“I should think so, too!” Amanda replied, with a slight smile. “’Buck-toothed Limey…’ the amount I pay my dentist, I wouldn’t expect anything less than perfect teeth!”

“Well, you knew Lizzie was innocent, right professor?” Lucie asked.

“Yeah, of course. Speaking of which, Lizzie, would you perhaps be free to have a meeting about our extra-curricular activities this evening? Say, around six?”

“Six? Yeah, I think I can manage that!” Lizzie replied, her face lighting up. After everything that had gone down, it’d be nice to get back to helping the professor again.

 

That evening, Amanda was staring intently at her computer screen, when there was a knock at the door.

“Enter!” she called out, not taking her eyes off of the computer. The door then opened, to reveal Lizzie stood there. “Ah, good evening, Lizzie!” Amanda said. “Come in, and shut the door behind you, could you?”

“Sure thing!” Lizzie said, before closing the door and sitting down in front of Amanda’s desk. There was a pause of a good twenty seconds, in which Amanda continued to stare at the computer screen while not acknowledging Lizzie’s presence.

“Umm… professor?” Lizzie asked.

“Done now. I was just looking at the highlights from today’s England game. They still can’t score worth a damn.” Amanda replied, turning to face Lizzie.

“England game? You mean, um, soccer?” Lizzie asked, uncertainly.

“Soccer… yes, of course.” Amanda replied, chuckling slightly. “Anyhow, we’ll get onto Alaskan Man in due course, but first I was just wondering…” she said, before reaching into her bag and then slapping a plastic bottle on the table, “If you could perhaps explain what this is?”

Lizzie stared at the bottle, completely stunned for a good few seconds, before eventually managing to get some words out.

“It’s… the bottle you gave Dean Miller this morning.” she mumbled.

“No, it isn’t.” Amanda replied, stone-faced. “That bottle contained what I said it did. A sports drink, along with a few vitamin and herbal supplements. This bottle, the one that Miller actually gave me, was something else entirely. The curious thing was, its contents were a lot like one of the formulas from my doctoral thesis, but there were a bunch of differences in the chemical processes that were used. And – quite possibly the most bizarre part – someone had added a healthy dose of shark extract.”

“Shark extract?! But…” Lizzie began to say, before clamming up.

“That was the part that stood out to you? Interesting.” Amanda said, before leaning on her desk. “In any case, what I found in that bottle was far too important to trust a pencil-pusher like Miller with it. And I knew that if he investigated further, it could cause a lot of trouble for you and I. Fortunately, I knew a very good lawyer from my tennis club, and after I threw a couple of thousand dollars his way, he agreed to take on the task of defending a poor student who’d gotten herself into trouble. Thereby shutting down any investigation before it could start.”

“W-wait… _you_ hired that lawyer?!” Lizzie replied, outraged. “But why? Sharon would have gotten expelled if you hadn’t done that!”

“No, she wouldn’t. Sooner or later she would have withdrawn her confession, and as you saw, Miller had no other evidence against her.” replied Amanda. “Besides, you need to think of the long-term here, Lizzie. That silly cow doesn’t have much of a future ahead of her, she’s just too entitled, too bad-tempered. But you? It seems that, quite by accident, you’ve stumbled across a breakthrough that makes the past 15 years of my research look pretty bloody mundane by comparison. And I’m also guessing that you don’t even actually know what this stuff does yet.”

“W-well… of course I don’t… because I’ve never seen that bottle before!” Lizzie stuttered.

“Elizabeth, please, darling. Do you know how I know you’re usually an honest person?” Amanda asked. “It’s because you’re not a very practised liar. Tell me the truth.”

Realising that her attempts to stonewall weren’t working, Lizzie decided that a lie mixed with some truth would be a better course of action. “Look, p-professor… it’s true that I was trying to make some kind of performance-enhancing supplement for Sharon… and I did look at your doctoral thesis. But it’s years beyond what I could figure out, I wouldn’t have known where to start!” she stuttered.

Amanda sat back again and smiled. “Thank you, Lizzie, you’ve just confirmed my theory. I’m willing to bet you weren’t able to understand everything in my thesis, but a bright girl like yourself could probably figure out the chemical formulas. You probably read about the one that increases a person’s strength, am I right?”

“Uh… I don’t really remember…” Lizzie muttered.

“The thing is, my old university accidentally uploaded an early version of my thesis to their website. I was finalizing my thesis while trying to wrap up my life in the UK before moving here, you see, and the first version contained a few wording errors. Like talking about a strength-increasing formula instead of a _size_ -increasing formula.”

Lizzie’s eyes suddenly jumped wide open. “Size… increasing…?” she asked.

Amanda nodded. “Here. Allow me to demonstrate.”

With that, she took a small bottle out of one of her desk drawers, and gulped down its contents.

Lizzie gasped. “Professor, what did you just do?!”

Amanda smiled at Lizzie. “Oh, just a little something that’s going to expand your views on how the world works.” she said, moments before the top couple of buttons on her blouse suddenly popped off, exposing her bra and cleavage. “Excuse the pun.”

She then stood up, revealing that her blouse and waistcoat had now tightened to the point where part of her midriff was on display, and her skirt had grown exceedingly tight around her hips and thighs.

“Oh my god…” Lizzie whispered, as she stood up and backed away from the desk.

Amanda giggled and then hiccupped, as she started to grow more visibly. Her waistcoat popped open, quickly followed by the rest of her blouse. Then, her heels slowly started to break open, as her expanding feet forced their way out. Her tights stretched, ripped and tore across her lengthening legs, and then the zipper at the back of her skirt snapped and then gradually popped open, exposing her panties.

“Oooh! Breezy!” Amanda chuckled.

Lizzie stared at her growing professor in disbelief. Usually she and Amanda stood eye-to-eye, but Amanda was already a good six or seven inches taller, and still growing. Part of Lizzie’s mind wanted to just run for the door, but whether she was paralysed with fear or just too curious, she couldn’t move. Then, for some reason, her mind wandered to thinking what good shape the professor’s body was in. As her blouse stretched and tore apart, revealing her toned arms and stomach, Lizzie suddenly found herself transfixed, not really knowing what to say or do.

Meanwhile, Amanda tore off what remained of her waistcoat and blouse, leaving Lizzie suddenly conscious of the fact that she was now staring at her professor’s bare breasts. A few moments later, she stepped back even further, looked down, and closed her eyes.

There were more ripping sounds from the front of the room, a couple of laughs from Amanda, and what sounded like something falling on the floor. Then a few moments, of silence followed by a few heavy footsteps. Then silence again.

“Lizzie?” came Amanda’s voice.

“Y-yes… professor…?”

“Please look at me when I’m talking to you.”

Nervously, Lizzie opened her eyes, and found herself staring at Amanda’s lower torso. She then looked upwards, to see Amanda smiling down at her. She was about eight feet tall, her head was touching the ceiling, and she was wearing absolutely nothing but a pair of incredibly tight panties.

“Let’s start again, shall we, Lizzie?” Amanda asked in an imperious tone, as she held up the bottle, which looked tiny in her huge hands. “Where exactly did this come from?”


	8. Chapter 8

“Lizzie, I won’t ask you again. Where did the contents of this bottle come from?”

Lizzie continued staring upwards at the enormous form of her professor, whose unwavering glare sliced through her like she were warm butter. Eventually, what little resistance she still had finally broke down.

“I… you’re right. I made it. I made it for Sharon.” Lizzie mumbled.

“Made it using the formula in my doctoral thesis, you mean?” Amanda demanded.

“Y-yes! At least, I… I tried to copy it as best I could. But I didn’t understand all the processes involved, so… there was some… some guesswork.” Lizzie stuttered.

“And the shark extract? From how you reacted, I’m guessing that wasn’t your doing?” asked Amanda.

“No! Sharon wanted me to put it in, but I told her it was too late, and that I didn’t know what effect it would have. She must have added it anyway before she drank it.” Lizzie continued.

“But the bottom line is, you _did_ take this formula from my own work?” Amanda asked, her voice becoming ever more forceful.

“Yes…” Lizzie whispered, bracing herself for the worst.

After a pause that seemed to last for an eternity, Amanda smiled, then placed a hand on Lizzie’s shoulder.

“Thanks. That was all I wanted to know.” she said, softly.

“It… was?” Lizzie asked, not knowing whether or not to feel relieved. “Are… are you mad at me?”

“Only because you nearly managed to kill your academic career as soon as it began, just to try and make some would-be sorority queen happy. Honestly, what were you thinking, Lizzie?” Amanda asked.

“I have to train and swim with Sharon three, four times a week! My problem wasn’t going to go away just by ignoring her.” Lizzie replied.

Amanda sighed, then led Lizzie over to the couch at the far end of her office. “I wish you’d told me the whole story sooner. If I’d known exactly what was going on, I could have just told you to let the matter go.”

“It, uh, probably wouldn’t have made any difference if you had.” Lizzie replied, still getting to grips with the bizarre situation she had found herself in. “Sharon wasn’t going to let things go, no matter what I did on my end.”

“Perhaps not. But still, there had to be a better way of going about things.” Amanda said as she sat down, causing the couch to audibly creak and bend slightly under her now-considerable weight. “Still, what’s done is done, right?” she continued, beckoning Lizzie to sit down beside her.

“Right… of course.” Lizzie mumbled, as she sat down next to Amanda, while thinking how surreal it was to be sat beside someone so much taller than her. Both of her parents were of a similar height to her, but even so, it had been her early teen years the last time she had felt so… _small_ next to another person. To say nothing of being so up-close with a person who was practically nude. Even when she was in the showers after swimming practice, she usually kept as far away from her team-mates as she could without looking too awkward.

“Let’s move on, shall we?” said Amanda, who picked up a stack of papers from the table next to the couch, and handed them to Lizzie. “Do you understand anything that’s written down on here?”

Lizzie squinted as she looked over the contents of the documents in her hand. She vaguely understood some of it – a collection of formulas and what appeared to be simulation results – but felt like a third grader who was trying to thumb her way through _War and Peace_.

“It looks like… like some kind of breakdown of a chemical formula, I’m guessing for the stuff I made. And simulation results of some kind? But I can’t really say I understand all… heck even most of the stuff on here.” she commented.

“I’m not surprised.” Amanda replied. “I know a bunch of my third-year students who’d struggle to make sense of any of that data.”

“So, um… what exactly should I do with it?” Lizzie asked.

“Put it somewhere safe. I’ll keep copies of it too. Then, every couple of months, take it out, see how much more of it you understand, and think about how you can build on it.” Amanda said, putting her outsized arm around Lizzie’s shoulders. “And then, in your final year, I want you to write a senior thesis that’ll really knock some socks off!”

“R-really?” Lizzie asked, a little nervously. “You think this has that kind of potential already?”

“Definitely.” Amanda replied, with a smile. “It’s not often I find someone in Oct— sorry, November of their first year who has the kind of potential that you do. I’ll make sure you get all the guidance you need, and when you graduate, the world’s gonna be your oyster!”

“Well, uh… no pressure, right?” Lizzie chuckled, trying to disguise how much pressure she already felt under just from what she was being told.

“There shouldn’t be just yet, Lizzie! It’s only your freshman year, after all.” Amanda said. “Enjoy your time here, and try living it up a little!”

“My roomie keeps telling me that, you know.” Lizzie replied.

“Sounds like someone you should be listening to! Was she by any chance that short girl who was sat with you in the dean’s office?” asked Amanda. “I could swear I’ve seen her hanging around the faculty a lot.”

“Yeah, that was her.” Lizzie replied. “Lucie studies biology, so…”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Amanda responded, before her expression became a little more stern. “Well, just remember not to share any of what we’ve discussed with her. We don’t want her stealing this out from under your nose for her own thesis, right?”

“She’d never do that!” Lizzie suddenly snapped, catching Amanda off-guard. “Lucie’s my friend, and I trust her absolutely!”

“Really? You’ve known her for, what, just under two months? How do you know you can trust her?” asked Amanda.

“I… um, well…” Lizzie began to say, suddenly realising that she didn’t really know how to put her answer to that question into words. She then thought it through, and replied, “I’ve never really warmed that easily to people. I’ve tended to, uh, keep my distance. But with Lucie, ever since I met her, I’ve always felt that I can talk to her, that I can discuss my problems with her… I mean, I won’t show her any of this just now, because I don’t think she’d understand any of it, but maybe by my senior year…”

“I understand. You’ll know her better by then, won’t you?” Amanda asked, seeing what she assumed to be Lizzie’s logic. “Well, I think that about covers it for this particular matter, so… I guess I’ll see you Wednesday morning for class.”

“Uh… right, of course.” Lizzie replied, standing up. “Are… are you still gonna be this big on Wednesday, or…?”

“Of course not!” Amanda laughed. “I take my job seriously, but I wouldn’t permanently make myself eight feet tall just to make a point to you! A few hours tops, I’ll be normal-size again.”

“Right… yeah… I mean, I thought it was odd that your formula didn’t seem stable, but then the breakdown rate was fairly controlled, so for the performance enhancer I thought I was making, it was actually perfectly suited, and for a size-increasing formula it’d definitely makes sense to... sorry, I’m just babbling now, aren’t I? I should go.”

“Babble it may be, but you clearly know your chemistry.” Amanda replied, swinging her legs over the couch’s armrest and then reclining as much of her body as she could on it. “It’s good to know. Say, before you leave, mind turning on the stereo? I’m just gonna catch forty winks, helps to have something to listen to.”

“Okay, sure.” Lizzie replied, before hitting the power button on a CD player that was sat on a nearby cabinet. “I’ll, uh… I’ll see you soon! You sure no-one’s gonna see you like that from the corridor?”

“Not from this angle. Don’t worry about me, Liz, I’ve been playing around with this stuff since you were in grade school. I’ll see you later!”

Lizzie hurriedly left the room, and Amanda reclined on the couch and closed her eyes.

“ _Maybe I should just spend the night here?_ ” she thought. “ _I’ve got plenty of changes of clothes, and Harry’s not gonna be back for another week._ ”

 

As Lizzie walked down the corridor, trying to digest the full details of what she had discussed with Amanda, one thing became both apparent and, shocking as it was, undeniable. The sight of Amanda’s clothes tightening across her expanding frame, straining, popping, and eventually tearing open to reveal her body… it had been oddly… _stimulating_ , for lack of a better word. Lizzie hadn’t felt turned on by Amanda herself so much, but something about what had been happening to her clothes had stirred something inside Lizzie.

“ _Maybe this is something I can talk about with Lucie? But then, how would I word it without making it sound like I’ve got a crush on my professor?_ ” she thought.

 

“I’m telling ya, Ripley and Lambert were totally doing it!”

“No, no, Ripley was doing it with Dallas! They probably had a quickie in the shuttle while they were waiting for the facehugger to fall off Kane.”

Lucie was sat at her desk, talking into her laptop’s webcam, with the screen displaying the images of one of her closest high school friends. Unlike her, he had stayed in New York City to attend college, but the two still talked several times a week, whenever the opportunity presented itself. And while she had already made more new friends at college than she could count, he was someone she would always make time for.

“I get what you mean. Hell, that was what I thought the first time I watched _Alien_.” Lucie continued. “But think about it. The Xenomorph claws its way through Kane’s chest, Ripley’s just annoyed at getting blood on her uniform. Brett gets his head smashed in, and then Dallas goes missing, she stays on top of things. Even when the android goes apeshit and nearly kills her, she still holds it together. But then when Lambert’s killed… that’s when she really starts to fall apart!”

“Wasn’t Parker killed at the same time as Lambert?” asked Lucie’s friend, a blonde-haired bespectacled man. “Maybe _he_ was Ripley’s FB?”

“’FB?’ C’mon, Ralph, you can say ‘fuck-buddy’, you’re 18 now, you know!” Lucie laughed.

“My mom’s in the next room, you know.” Ralph grumbled. “But still, they totally had that whole belligerent sexual tension thing going on!”

“Yeah, I guess that’s a valid enough interpretation as well.” Lucie replied, as she relaxed in her chair. “But still… some of the looks those two ladies share…” she continued, with a smirk.

“I, uh, I get that! So, uh, you want me to send you any more comics by post?” asked Ralph.

“Just keep with the Guardians of the Galaxy stuff, I can find everything else locally, thanks.” Lucie replied. “Actually, you know what, I’ve found a place that imports lots of comics from Europe. I mean, I’ve not actually been there yet, but why don’t you send me a list of anything you might like?”

“Sure, that’d be great, thanks! The specialty stores back here haven’t gotten any cheaper since you left, I can tell you that much.” Ralph said.

“Some things never change, huh?” Lucie laughed.

“Listen, I’d better get going, I’m due at a D&D game in about twenty minutes. Talk to you at the weekend?” asked Ralph.

“Suits me fine! Until we meet again!”

 

Just as Lucie closed her Skype window, the door opened, and Lizzie entered their room.

“Oh, hi, Liz!” Lucie called out. “How’s the rest of your day been? Not as dramatic as this morning, I take it?”

“Not… not really.” Lizzie replied, figuring it was best not to let Lucie in on what had just transpired in Amanda’s office.

“Good to hear it!” replied Lucie, as she stood up. “Anyhow, I’m gonna take a drive into the city, there’s this new comic store I’ve been meaning to check out. Don’t suppose you wanna come with?”

Lizzie thought it through for a few moments, and then smiled. “Yeah, sure I’d love to! Actually, Lucie, I was thinking about picking up a few Incredible Hulk comics at some points, so… now’s as good of a chance as any!”

“The Hulk?” Lucie asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why him?”

Lizzie momentarily panicked, feeling too embarrassed to tell Lucie her actual reason, but quickly came up with something that sounded plausible.

“I, uh, watched the old TV show, the live-action one, a lot when I was growing up. Kept meaning to check out the comics, but I just never got around to it until now.” Lizzie explained. “And I thought when I was done with the comics, you could read them?”

“Sure, yeah, sounds like a plan!” Lucie replied, a little surprised at Lizzie’s choice in comic books, but privately quite pleased that she seemed to be developing her own interest in the artform. “We can get you a few She-Hulk ones as well, if you’d like!”

“There’s a She-Hulk?” Lizzie asked, seeming genuinely surprised.

“Uh… yeah, there is.” replied, Lucie, realizing that Lizzie still had a long way to go in her comic education. “If you’d like, I can tell you all about her while we’re driving to the store.”

“That’d be great, thanks!” Lizzie replied, enthusiastically. “And when we’re done at the store, why don’t you let me buy you dinner? You know, my treat, for helping me out this morning.”

“You don’t need to do that! I mean, I just did what any decent roomie would have done, right?” Lucie replied, blushing sligihtly.

“Maybe.” Lizzie replied, taking Lucie’s hand as she did so. “But I feel so much more confident when I’m around you. And… I’ve been thinking about what you told me the other week – hell, my professor’s been telling me the same thing – and I’d like to spend more time with you.”

“More? Don’t we already live together? I mean, that’s quite a lot of time already!” Lucie laughed.

“Oh, yeah, of course!” said Lizzie, laughing a little herself. “But I think it’s time I started doing stuff apart from studying and swimming.”

“That’s fine, I totally get that.” Lucie replied, smiling warmly. “In fact, since we’re doing my thing today, maybe later in the week we can do something you enjoy?”

Lizzie sighed a little. “Well… yeah, we could. But the only other thing I usually do is go to the sports bar to watch live sport on TV, and god knows when I’m gonna be able to do that again.”

“So, let’s go to the campus stadium, watch an actual game! We can drink beer, eat hot dogs and nachos, you can tell me how the game actually works…” Lucie suggested, smiling eagerly.

“Well, uh… yeah, that… that totally sounds like a plan!” replied Lizzie, while mentally noting to herself that she was still letting Lucie make all the plans even for something she had suggested. “I mean, I’ve not been to that many live sports before, but, uh, gotta start somewhere, right?”

“Great! Something to look forward to! So, uh, shall we head out?” Lucie asked.

“Yep!”

 

The sun had almost completely set by the time Lizzie and Lucie got down to where Lucie’s car was parked.

“You’ll have to adjust the seat.” Lucie said, as she unlocked the car. “The last passenger I had was my sister, and she’s only about my height.”

“Sure thing!” Lizzie called out, opening the door and feeling around for the adjustment handle. “So… any idea where we should go for dinner?”

“Somewhere we can eat something warm.” Lucie replied, getting into the car. “Feels like it’s gonna be a cold one tonight.”

“No argument there. I can feel the chill in the air.” said Lizzie, as she squeezed her long legs into the car.

Lucie closed the driver-side door, and then sighed. “Liz… you’ve heard me on my guitar, right? Do you think I’m any good at it?”

“Uh, _yeah!_ ” Lizzie replied, a little taken aback that Lucie had needed to ask her that.

“Right, sure. Just, one of the other campus bars has an open-mike night next week. I was thinking about playing some of the songs I’ve written, but, well, I really don’t know if they’re any good. Would you maybe listen to them, and… you know, see if you like them?” Lucie asked.

“Well, yeah, of… of course!” Lizzie replied, not quite believing what her roomie was asking her. “But why do you need me to do that? I mean, weren’t you rocking it out last night?”

“I was freestyling! And I was drunk!” Lucie replied, with a slightly nervous laugh. “When I write songs, I put a lot of heart, soul and effort into them. And if the audience didn’t like them… well, I’m sure it’d be nothing a few shots of tequila wouldn’t solve, but still, it’d majorly suck.”

“I think I understand.” Lizzie said, smiling reassuringly. “You play me some of your songs at some point, and I’ll tell you which ones work best. Because I can tell you right now, they’re all gonna be _good_ , it’ll just be a matter of figuring out which ones work best together.”

“Glad you’ve got such confidence in me!” Lucie replied, feeling a little cheerier. “Tell you what, let’s discuss this more tomorrow! Right now, let’s just enjoy ourselves, shall we?”

“Yeah, of course!” replied Lizzie, with an enthusiastic smile.

 

As Lucie pulled out of her parking space and started driving towards the campus exit, Lizzie thought to herself that maybe, deep down, she and her roomie were more alike than was readily apparent. If nothing else, Lucie certainly wasn’t immune to the same kind of anxiety that Lizzie was, even if she was able to hide it a lot better. But that only left Lizzie feeling even more inclined to trust her roomie than she had before.

“ _However long our journey together’s gonna last_ ,” Lizzie thought, as the car left the campus and entered the main road leading into the city, “ _It’s gonna be an interesting one. And I’m glad I can share it with her._ ”


	9. Chapter 9

Lizzie stuffed the last of her clothes into her suitcase, and with all the strength she could muster, pulled the zipper shut. She then looked around her room to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, and then sighed. It was silly, the more she thought about it – she was only going to be away from her dorm room for three weeks. Even so, the room had somehow begun to feel more like home than her actual parents’ apartment was. Then again, that apartment was the ninth address she had lived at during the course of her life – putting down roots was something she’d never really done.

“You about ready, Liz?” Lucie called out, as she walked into the room, putting on a pair of thick gloves as she did so.

“I am, yeah.” Lizzie replied. “But you really don’t have to do this, Lucie, I don’t mind taking a cab.”

“Believe me, Liz, if the cab drivers in this city are anything like they are in NYC, they’ll rip you off something fierce at this time of year.” Lucie replied.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Lizzie sighed, as she picked up her backpack, and she and Lucie began walking out of the room.

 

As soon as Lizzie and Lucie opened the front door of their dorm building, they were hit with a blast of frigid, freezing air. Snow covered the entire campus, and had done for over a week. Several snowmen stood in the forecourt in front of the building, many of them wearing Santa hats. Still, they trudged forward through the layers of snow. As she and Lucie arrived at the latter’s car, Lizzie half-jokingly wondered whether all this snow was the universe’s reaction to her attempts to pay as little attention to the on-campus Christmas festivities as possible.

“I’ll never get used to this cold.” Lizzie commented, shivering visibly as she did so.

“Didn’t you say you lived in Seattle when you were younger?” asked Lucie. “That’s even further north than this place!”

“Yeah.” Lizzie replied, as she and Lucie reached the latter’s car. “Difference being, I wasn’t old enough to remember the cold back then. Now, I am!”

“Point taken.” Lucie replied, unlocking the car. “Hopefully they’ll have cleared the roads back home by tomorrow.”

 

About a half-hour later, Lucie pulled up outside the city’s airport which, fortunately, was still working at full capacity even with all the snow.

“Alrighty, then.” Lucie said, as she put on the parking brake. “So, um… as first semesters at college go, I guess this could have been a whole lot worse, huh?”

Lizzie pondered Lucie’s question, and then smiled. “Certainly could have. But I’ve been lucky to have such a great roomie.”

“Thanks, Liz! Before you go, I’ve just got a little something for you.” Lucie replied, before reaching into her jacket and pulling out a small envelope. “It’s not much, but I thought you might like it.” she continued, handing it to Lizzie.

“Aw, thanks!” Lizzie replied, before tearing open the envelope. Inside was a metallic keychain, in the shape of a green, muscular woman. “A She-Hulk keychain?” Lizzie gasped. “Lucie, you didn’t need to get me this!”

“I know, but I saw it when I was picking up some comics last Monday. I thought you said you needed a keychain, and I figured since it only cost—” Lucie started to say.

“I don’t care how much it cost!” Lizzie quickly replied. “I’m so just flattered that you thought of me like that!”

And then, without even thinking, Lizzie leaned in and kissed Lucie on the cheek.

“Oh! Holy crap, you… you actually did that, didn’t you?” Lucie mumbled, grinning and turning bright red.

“Whoops… kinda got carried away there, didn’t I?” Lizzie replied, smiling awkwardly. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize!” said Lucie. “Usually you’re so damn reserved, Liz. It’s nice to see you be spontaneous.”

“Well, um, thanks!” Lizzie giggled. “I’ll try and work out how to be more spontaneous next year. Or… would that be kind of defeating the purpose, planning to be more impulsive?”

“Just keep trying more new things, it’ll come to you naturally.” Lucie said.

“Will do!” replied Lizzie. “Okay, guess I’d better get going. Keep in touch on Facebook, won’t you?”

“Of course I will. Take care, babe.”

The two roomies then shared a long, tender hug before Lizzie got out of the car, retrieved her luggage from the car’s trunk, and headed towards the check-in area. Lucie carried on watching until Lizzie disappeared into the crowds, then pulled away from the airport and started driving back towards college.

“ _Goddamn it. Am I actually falling in love with Lizzie?_ ” thought Lucie. “ _Pretty sure that was my New Year’s resolution_ _for this year – stop falling in love with unattainable girls_.”

 

“Hey, Lucie, sweetie, get in here already! Only two minutes left to go.”

“Coming!”

Lucie flushed the toilet, thankful that her father had finally replaced the grimy old toilets in his showroom during her first semester at college, then quickly made her way out to the showroom floor, which was occupied by a crowd of loud, drunken car salesmen and mechanics. Every year, her father hosted a get-together for the local car dealers’ association on December 31st. And every year, Lucie and her two elder sisters would have to spend several hours cleaning the place afterwards.

“Go find your sister.” called out a woman who was wearing an excessive amount of make-up, plus enough bleach in her hair to scrub the showroom’s floor spotless. “She’s got your drink.”

“Sure thing, mom.”

Lucie made her way through the crowd – fortunately, her years of attending these parties, plus her short stature, had shown her how to avoid the attentions of horny salesmen – and found her way to a woman who looked somewhat like her, but was a little older and had hair that was somewhat shorter and tied back in a bun.

“There you are!” said Lucie’s eldest sister, Audrey, who handed Lucie a glass containing some cheap champagne that their father had picked up at the local wholesaler. “Seen what a mess this place is already? Becca had the right idea, skipping out this year.”

“Tell me about it.” Lucie said, as she took the glass. Her and Audrey’s middle sister, Becca, had already welcomed in the new year in Paris, along with her boyfriend. Which just so conveniently left her out of the country when she and her two other sisters would usually be cleaning up the showroom. “Listen, Audrey, I—”

“10! 9! 8…!” came the voices of the assembled party guests.

“Oh, shit! Tell you later, Audrey!”

“3! 2! 1! Happy New Year!”

Lucie, Audrey and everyone else in the showroom downed their champagne, marking the beginning of a fresh year.

“Crap, did dad drain this out of one of his junkers?” Audrey spluttered, as she lowered the glass from her lips.

“Eh, I’ve tasted worse.” replied Lucie. “Anyway, Happy New Year, sis!” she continued, as she and Audrey hugged one another.

“Happy New Year, Lucie!” added Audrey.

“Aw, so nice to see you both hugging like that.” came a gravelly voice. “Shame your sister ain’t here, huh?”

Lucie and her sister turned to face a short, balding man, who had greying hair and a smile that could dazzle people from a thousand paces.

“Yeah. But I’m sure she’s enjoying herself, dad.” Lucie replied, with a smile and a shrug.

“She’d better be. I’ve been to Paris before, and trust me, it ain’t cheap.” Lucie’s father added.

“Don’t tell me she talked you into paying for her holiday?” asked Audrey.

“Not the holiday itself. But I gave her a couple hundred Euros in spending money.”

“She’d better bring us back some quality booze, or else!” snarked Lucie.

“I should hope so.” Replied her father. “’Specially with all the cleaning the two of you are gonna be doing tonight. Sure you don’t mind doing it?”

“Yeah, it’s, uh, no problem.” Audrey replied, trying to muster up as much enthusiasm as she could.

“I’m cool with it.” added Lucie. Every year, she had wanted to tell her father to go screw himself, and she knew her two sisters had as well. But deep down, she knew that her father had used his contacts in the police to keep the trio out of trouble with the law more than a few times in the past. She could afford to do this for him once a year.

“Glad to hear it!" said Lucie's father. "Anywho, I’ll be around if you need me. Now, why don’t ya both find your mother and give her a New Year’s kiss?”

“Will do!”

As Lucie and Audrey tried to find their mother in the increasingly rowdy crowd, Lucie turned to her elder sister.

“Look, sis, when the party wraps up you get home. Get back to Tommy and Max.” she said, quietly.

“Are you sure? I don’t like the thought of you having to clean this place all by yourself.” Audrey replied, a little taken aback. “The entire reason why I came to this party was so that you wouldn’t have to do the job alone.”

“And I don’t like the thought of you being completely pooped out when you start your first full year with your son.” Lucie replied, firmly. “Go on, I’ll take the hit. Call it a belated Christmas gift. When I’m done, I’ll have a power nap in dad’s office, and then I’ll start working on that sweet Trans Am that he’s got out the back.”

Audrey laughed. “And there I was, worried you’d gone all soft. Nice to see college hasn’t changed you!”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it has, just a little.”

 

Several hours later, as she shovelled more junk into a garbage bag, Lucie looked up at the clock on the wall. 2:48AM. By now the Central and Mountain time zones had also welcomed in the New Year. Pacific Time – and by extension, Lizzie – still had twelve minutes to go.

Lucie put down the garbage back and looked around the now otherwise-empty showroom. She had at least another hour of cleaning left to go, and that was assuming no-one had gotten into and trashed the office area. Again. Taking a few minutes out to call her roomie wasn’t going to make a dent in the overall job facing her.

Lucie took her phone out of her pocket, and dialled Lizzie’s number. It rang for some time, but there was no answer.

“ _Guess she can’t hear her phone. Her folks are probably having their own get-together. Oh well_.” Lucie thought.

She resumed cleaning up, but not a couple of minutes later, her phone rang. Hurriedly, Lucie took it out of her pocket and answered it.

“Hi, Lizzie!” Lucie said, eagerly.

“Evening, Lucie… or should that be morning?” came Lizzie’s voice, accompanied by a slight laugh. “How’s the new year treating you so far?”

“Not too bad. You remember I told you about my dad’s party, well, I’m cleaning up after it. But that means I get dibs on this sweet ride he’s got out the back, before any of the mechanics get their hands on it!”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it!” Lizzie replied. “Sorry I didn’t answer you before. I was getting a drink.”

“I get you. Big crowd at the bar, huh?” asked Lucie.

“No, I’m at home.”

“Really? Oh, right, your parents are hosting a party, huh?”

“Not as such. The Nevada bar association has this big party, mom and dad always go to it. But it’s really not my scene, Lucie.”

“Sooo… who’s with you?” Lucie asked, starting to feel a little concerned.

“No-one.” Lizzie replied nonchalantly.

“You’re seeing in the New Year by yourself?” asked Lucie, a little surprised.

“Lucie, I’ve seen in every New Year by myself.” said Lizzie, not quite understanding why Lucie was making such a fuss. “Either I’ve slept through midnight, or I’ve just been at home, alone.”

Lucie thought for a moment, and bit her lip. She wasn’t about to chew Lizzie out for how she saw in the New Year, that wasn’t any of her business. But still…

“So, what do you do? I mean, how do you know it’s midnight?” she asked.

“My parents have this grandfather clock in the lounge. I use that.” replied Lizzie.

“Let’s try something different.” suggested Lucie. “Turn on the TV, find a channel that’s got a countdown show on.”

“Well… okay, if you insist.” Lizzie replied, before walking through to the lounge, and turning on the TV. After flicking through the channels, she found one that had a live feed from the Las Vegas strip. “Alright, I’ve found one. Looks like they’re putting on quite the show on the strip.”

“And you say you’ve never been down… actually, never mind. I’ve never wanted to see in the New Year at Times Square, too damn crowded. I’m guessing the strip’s no different.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right.” Lizzie replied, before looking at the clock on the TV. There were still about four minutes left to go.

“So, how was Christmas Day?” Lucie asked.

“Really good, actually. We had dinner together, me, mom and dad, and it was, uh… yeah, it was nice. What about you?”

“Yeah, same here!” Lucie replied. “Mom, dad, my eldest sister, her hubby and kid, my other sister and her boyfriend… it was a pretty full house. Kinda felt like the odd one out, but hey, what else is new?”

Lizzie chuckled slightly. “Here, I’ll put you on speakerphone, then you can hear the countdown.”

“Awesome!” Lucie added, as Lizzie set down her phone and put on the speakerphone. “Probably not many people get to ring in the New Year twice, huh?”

“No, you’re probably right.” Lizzie replied, as the countdown hit one minute. “So, any New Year’s resolutions?”

“Not to have any New Year’s resolutions.”

“Doesn’t that kind of defeat itself?”

“Yeah, that’s kinda the point, Liz.”

The two women watched and listened, as the countdown reached twenty seconds.

“Got a drink?” Lucie asked.

“Yeah. Have you?” replied Lizzie.

“Just a minute, I think… yeah!” Lucie added, retrieving a mostly-empty bottle of warm, flat champagne from a nearby table. Probably wouldn’t taste any worse than when it had been opened, she reasoned.

“10! 9! 8!” came the voice from the TV.

“Alright, yeah! 5! 4! 3…” Lucie added.

“Lucie, I… I wish you were here with me!”

“Huh? What?”

The two women stood in their respective locations, momentarily dumbfounded, and not even registering the transition into the New Year in Nevada for a good few seconds.

“That’s uh… that’s really flattering Lizzie… Happy New Year, by the way.” Lucie mumbled. “Yeah, I mean, I kinda wish you were here with me too. I mean, if nothing else, I’d…”

“Lucie, I did make a New Year’s resolution. To be more honest with myself.” Lizzie replied, suddenly fighting back tears. “And the truth is, I’ve… I’ve never really met anyone I’ve really felt a connection to. Never stuck around long enough to really be able to trust someone. Until I met you.”

“Wait…” Lucie replied, not quite able to believe what she was hearing. “Are you… are you saying… you’re in love with me?”

“What?! No, I didn’t mean that!” Lizzie replied, managing a slight laugh despite her feelings of frustration. “What I meant was… I don’t know, really. Just that… I really, really miss you Lucie. I really like spending time together at college and, well, I guess I just feel this void in my life, now that I’m back home.” she said.

“Well, okay, let’s do something about that.” Lucie suggested. “Every day we’re still apart, we’ll set some time aside to call one another, chat about things. Maybe make some plans for when we get back. It’s up to you.”

“Thanks, I’d really like that.” Lizzie replied, before thinking for a moment. “You know, I haven’t booked my flight back yet. I was going to book it for a week on Monday, but… maybe I could book it for the Friday beforehand? Then, if you can get down from NYC, we could spend the weekend together?”

Lucie thought for a moment. “I’d have to think of a way of getting away from my family without pissing off mom and dad, but I should be able to manage that somehow. I’ll think it over, and let you know tomorrow… I mean, later today.”

“Great! I’ll try to get some sleep then, and I’ll look forward to hearing from you!” replied Lizzie, eagerly. “Happy New Year, Lucie! Love you!”

“I love you too!” Lucie laughed. “I’ll get back to cleaning this up, and call you as soon as I can. Take care!”

Lucie ended the call, and as Lizzie picked up her phone, it suddenly occurred to her what she had just blurted out. She closed her eyes, and groaned audibly, before downing what remained of her drink in one go.

“New Year’s Resolution #2. Stop giving Lucie the wrong idea about how I feel about her.” she said.


End file.
